


Think... Ink

by themarginalartist



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 06:26:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 23,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11269836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themarginalartist/pseuds/themarginalartist
Summary: This is is a spinoff of the 2D Bendy AU.IT IS NOT canon to the main AU.IT IS HOWEVER still from shinyzango's AU Tumblr and they have graciously let me take over the reigns as far as what will happen with it (not that they won't draw it from time to time). Tumblr is where you will find updates regarding this AU.





	1. Chapter 1

Henry groaned. His head was throbbing and it took all his effort to sit upright without the room spinning. When he finally got upright he hung his head between his knees, eyes still firmly screwed shut, trying to make sure he wouldn’t vomit with how dizzy he was.

Something was off.

Not necessarily wrong, but something didn’t feel quite right about his body. It still felt like his. He still felt like the same Henry. But the way his body moved just felt, off.

He cracked his left eye open. A quick glance was all it took for the startled gasp to escape his lips.

There was so much ink.

Ink covered his legs, his left leg coated al the way up to the hip and the right starting just below his knee, feet completely encased in ink. His entire right arm now much larger in proportions and chest half coated in ink. His left shoulder where the ink paused only to continue down his arm and transform his other hand into a slightly thinner version of his right. He then realized he couldn’t see out of his right eye as ink now coated it. He could feel it dripping down his face and the rest of his body.

His heart rate increasing with every second he looked himself over. He clutched the sides of his head. Oddly, he felt hair, not coated entirely in ink. Even though he was beginning to panic, he thought in the back of his mind that he should really find a mirror to see the complete version of the transformation. While he could feel his body as his, he couldn’t visualize the complete changes entirely.

“Wha—“ He cut himself off quickly. The beginning of his words distorted heavily as he felt the ink move and block his throat. He put his left hand against his neck feeling how each breath was facing slight resistance as it came in and out of his now ink coated throat.

“What happened to me?!” He pressed through it. It was odd but he needed to hear his own voice just to confirm it was really now his. It also somehow felt grounding, like a lighthouse in a storm, keeping him from completely losing it in that moment. He couldn’t explain why he felt the distorted voice felt right in that moment, but he didn’t question it. Knowing that it would only cause him to spin his wheels on questions that he could provide no answers too.

It didn’t seem wrong though. Which was what caused him to question himself. Maybe it was the ink affecting his mind, but he kept coming back to the thought that his body was his.

He noticed the silence of the room just then, only filled with his ragged breaths from the panic that this new form provided. That silence was not comforting in the slightest. There needed to be something else. There was a missing part in this picture. Some other noise…

Wait.

Where was Bendy?

Henry quickly patted himself down, then realized that the ink from his body would have caused the little demon to transform. Henry looked around the room he was in not spying the paper with the cartoon on it anywhere.

“Bendy…” How was he going to explain this to the little toon? Would Bendy even recognize him? A thought crossed his mind that now he knew why Bendy didn’t talk as much when he was in monster form passed through his head. But putting that thought aside, Henry only felt thick, creeping, dread run through him. There were so many questions he had in that moment.

And no answers.

“No use moping and spiraling.” He shook his head trying to clear out some of the negative thoughts he had. It felt odd to do that as little flecks of ink came off. Of course this didn’t change his vision at all as the ink was much too thick to move off of his face. Henry stood up.

Or at least attempted to.

Henry immediately fell back to the floor, his attempt to stand foiled but his lack of center of gravity in his new body, with a loud, goopy thud.

“Ow…” He muttered, except it sounded more like a low grunt as it came out of his throat, ink blocking him from making clear sounds.

He was going to need some practice…

* * *

Henry was lying on the floor. After the thirtieth attempt at standing and falling down again he’d given up for the moment. He didn’t get it. He should have found his balance by now. But he hadn’t. And the frustration was growing. He covered his face with his right arm to stop staring at the ceiling and block out the flickering light from the fixture above.

A growl left his throat.

If only he could get out of this room! He just wanted to walk again!

He thought about his body. Mentally he knew that this wasn’t his body. Or at least that it wasn’t the correct form of his body. He drifted to thinking of his ‘human’ form. The last time he’d passed a mirror, as he was leaving his house to come to the studio, he pictured himself in his head.

And as he thought about it. He felt. Odd.

Like things were shifting and moving. Not in a painful way, but as if he was changing.

He pulled his arm away and opened his eyes.

Wait. Eyes?

He closed his right eye. Then his left. He could see out of both! He quickly sat upright. He wasn’t coated in ink anymore! What was going on? Then he looked at his hands, both were back to their normal size. Then he flipped them over to see the palms of his hands.

A pentagram. Black, with an additional little square symbol in the space just left of the circle.

Henry began to panic. When did that get on his hand?!

As his heart rate increased, the pentagram thickened and grew, ink coming out of it coating his hand returning it to the monstrous version it had been moments ago. He could feel the ink coating his body again and changing it.

He had to calm down.

Taking deep breaths to try and even out his breathing, he eventually got his racing thoughts back under control. And with his mental state being much calmer, the ink retracted again.

It was an odd experience. But for now he wasn’t about to question it too much. He had to get moving. He spotted his axe laying discarded on the floor just opposite of him. He stood up carefully, just to make sure that his balance was back, and not finding any difficulty this time he walked over and picked it up. There was only one door in the room he woke up in, he walked over, turned the handle, and entered the hallway of the studio.

He had to find Bendy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know, there's an alternate ending for this chapter at the end...

I have to find Bendy. I have to find him. Maybe he will know what's going on. Why I now look like this.

 

I have to find Bendy.

I have to find Bendy.

I have to find Bendy.

I have to find Bendy.

I have to find Bendy.

 

I have to find him.

I have to find him.

I have to find him.

I have to find him.

I have to find him.

 

I have to find it.

I have to find it.

I have to find it.

I have to find it.

I have to find it.

 

Find it.

Find it.

Find it.

Find it.

 

Kill it.

* * *

Bendy moved down the silent hallway, the only noise being the ripples of ink pushing aside as he moved. He checked the doors as he went, peering inside to see if he could find any signs of Henry, but he kept coming up empty handed. Growing more frustrated and sad that he couldn't find him he let out a growl.

What had happened to Henry? 

The last thing he remembered was the two of them falling asleep in a side room. When he'd woken up there was no trace of Henry, not even his axe. Had Henry abandoned him?

He shook his head fiercely. He couldn't think like that. Something had to have happened. Henry had made his promise that he would help him get out (even though he still didn't believe him a little bit). Henry had been there for him through everything so far.

So why did it hurt so much the longer he looked?

He moved into one of the side rooms and shut the door. Moving towards the desk in the back he left a large in puddle before reaching inside himself and putting his paper on the desk to stare out to the room. When the ink finally dripped away he was sitting on his line, knees curled up to his chest.

"I wish Henry was here right now..." he whispered to the empty room. It had been so hard already.

Searching for Henry alone. Fighting searchers alone. Being alone.

Tears formed in the corner of his eyes. It just wasn't fair, things had been going okay for them for once, Henry hadn't been injured for a while and his leg had been getting better and he had been gaining better control of his other form. He'd gone an extra couple of minutes longer each time he left the safety of a room to look for Henry.

"Where are you Henry? Why did you leave me?" Bendy laid down on his side and closed his eyes, a nap would help, he'd have to search for Henry later.

* * *

Sad.

Why sad.

So sad.

Hurts.

Do not like.

 

Anger.

Replace sad.

Hate sad.

Kill it.

Sad bad.

Only anger.

Only hate.

 

Kill it.

Kill it.

Kill it.

Kill it.

Kill it.

 

Tired.

Rest.

Pool.

Sleep.

 

Find it.

Find it.

Find it.

Find it.

Find it.

 

Later.

Wait.

Sleep.

Hide.

Wait.

Kill it.

* * *

Bendy had woken up a little while ago and had started searching again. He still tried to hope that Henry was safe and that nothing had happened to him, but as each minute dragged on, it was harder and harder to hope.

Why did you leave me Henry? Why?

Bendy kept on though. He decided that after that last break, he was done taking breaks, he had to find Henry.

 

 

 

 

 

No matter what.

 

 

 

 

Even if that meant he lost control.

* * *

Rage.

I feel it.

It hurts.

It feels so bad.

Why.

Hate it.

Do not want it.

Want it to stop.

Want to kill it.

Want to sleep.

Do not want these.

Feelings.

It hurts.

It hurts.

It hurts.

It hurts.

It hurts.

Anguish.

Do not want.

Kill it.

End it.

Make it stop.

It caused this.

End it.

Make it hurt too.

End it.

Kill it.

Kill it.

Kill it.

Kill it.

Kill it.

Make it suffer. __

* * *

Bendy had lost control. He raged through the hallways. Any searcher that came up in his path was turned into a splatter against the wall. He roared. The pinprick of light in his eye scanned the hall as he went. He clawed hand leaving marks in the wall as he dragged it against it. He growled.

He was angry.

He was furious.

He was desperate.

As he continued down the current hallway he came to an area flooded in ink. Nothing that he wasn’t used to. He entered it without thinking.

Searchers popped up from the pool. He snarled. And the fight began. Left and right he swung his arms and smacked the searchers out of existence. He roared as some of them tried to get him from behind, quickly smashing those ones as well.

For what seemed like ages he fought off the searchers.

And then they stopped coming.

He panted heavily, rage starting to fade away slightly. His form smoothed out. He was back to normal, or at least back in control. He looked around at the pool. The area was silent. Too silent.

Then he heard it behind him. Something coming out of the ink and raising up. Excess dripping and falling off the form of what it was. He turned around.

It wasn’t the other ‘Bendy’ as he had initially feared. And it wasn’t a searcher. But it was terrifying.

It stood at the same height he was. Black and staring with a single wide eye. Entire face covered in ink. A large spike protruded from its head. It was leaning forward, huge arms supporting it upright, legs defined but just goopy messes that widened out as they went to the pool. They stared at each other. Squaring each other up. Tension in the room rising. Low growls coming from the new creature.

It roared, ink making stringy lines where it’s mouth was, and launched itself at him.

It’s spike aimed straight for his chest. Bendy dodged out of the way in the nick of time. It stopped itself quickly and turned raising an arm to swipe down at him. He blocked it with his own arm, keeping the hand from reaching his head. It grabbed him with the other arm though, yanking him aside like a doll, and threw him against the wall.

Bendy growled. It was strong. And he didn’t have Henry here right now to help him. He was just going to have to fight it on his own. But why did it’s head shape seem familiar?

He had no time to question it further as the creature launched itself at him, trying to drive its spike through his chest again. Bendy ducked down as it did so and grabbed the creature around it’s torso and threw them both down into the pool. He pinned it’s arms down, struggling to make sure that he had control of the creature. It lifted it’s head trying to use the spike to slice at him. Bendy was cut on his shoulder as he moved his head out of the way. He hissed in pain.

And suddenly it stopped.

It froze. Eye widening.

And it hissed. The frozen moment suddenly gone and it pushed Bendy off with enough force to launch him some ways away in the pool.

“HuRTs” It growled.

That voice, distorted but familiar. Bendy hissed in pain as the cut on his shoulder let ink flow out of his form, the gash while not leaking heavily still hurt.

It came at him again.

But didn’t use its spike, swinging its arms instead, like it was afraid of something.

Bendy dodged out of the way easily. It seemed to be slowing down for some reason.

“SToP iT” It roared. dropping to its knees and clutching his head. “PaiN. dO NoT waNt It” It was shaking.

Bendy was too. He realized why the voice sounded familiar. Why when he first saw its head it was familiar. Why he was familiar.

“…Henry?” Bendy quietly questioned. It snapped its eye towards him and stared, only confirming Bendy’s suspicion.

“Henry, is that— Is that you?” Bendy felt the tears begin to well up in his eye. He was shaking heavily, trying to keep his form stable. The loss of ink from his shoulder, having come out of berserker mode a little while ago, and having just fought his only friend in the studio was taking its toll on him. But he needed to press through it, just for a little while longer.

“hUrtS” It hissed quietly.

“Henry it’s okay. It’s me. Don’t you recognize me?” Bendy carefully moved towards Henry. Henry didn’t move. He kept watching him. Shaking.

“Henry you need to calm down.” Bendy hated how much he had to speak right now. How his voice was distorted and awful. But Henry needed him.

Henry’s form was now losing globs of ink. He was slowly changing back. But back into what?

Bendy was two feet away when Henry’s form changed in a large splash of ink. Everything from that old form had fallen away. And left in its place was Henry.

Except he was definitely not human, or not fully human.

Bendy looked over his friends form. Henry’s body was coated in ink in different places. His chest obscured by ink leading down into his right arm and making it as large as Bendy’s own. His left arm starting just above his elbow was a skinnier, shorter version of the same. He saw how the ink was all the way up to Henry’s hip on his left leg, and from what he could tell it looked to be that his right leg started below the knee as Henry’s pants were still visible. White hair was all that protruded from his head, the remaining brown coated in ink that fell to his shoulders.

Bendy couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down his face.

“I— I’m a monster— I hurt you— I— I can’t— I can’t stay here— I can’t—” And with that Henry ran.

Bendy started to chase after, but immediately had to stop and clutch his head, waves of fear, sadness, and self loathing rolled through him. He remembered feeling those. He knew those feelings well. But those were not his. These feelings though overwhelmed him and he quickly spotted a door and threw himself inside slamming it shut. Spotting a desk he quickly reached in and pulled his paper to lay on the desk.

When the ink cleared away, Bendy was panting on the page, shaking.

“What, what was that, all of those feelings. And Henry, Henry what happened to him? I GAHH” Another wave of emotion hit the toon. It hurt so bad and it made him feel terrible. He wanted to help Henry so bad. He needed to help Henry. But he was just so tired.

Without realizing. Bendy eventually closed his eyes and fell asleep.

The last thought the toon had before he finally fell into a dreamless sleep from the exhaustion of the days events, ‘I will help you Henry, I promise.’

* * *

 

 

 

 

**Alternate ending…**

Bendy was too. He realized why the voice sounded familiar. Why when he first saw its head it was familiar. Why he was familiar.

“…Henry?” Bendy quietly questioned. It snapped its eye towards him and stared, only confirming Bendy’s suspicion.

“Henry, is that— Is that you?” Bendy felt the tears begin to well up in his eye. He was shaking heavily, trying to keep his form stable. The loss of ink from his shoulder, having come out of berserker mode a little while ago, and having just fought his only friend in the studio was taking its toll on him. But he needed to press through it, just for a little while longer.

“hUrtS” It hissed quietly.

“Henry it’s okay. It’s me. Don’t you recognize me?” Bendy carefully moved towards Henry. Henry didn’t move. He kept watching him. Shaking.

“Henry you need to calm down.” Bendy hated how much he had to speak right now. How his voice was distorted and awful. But Henry needed him.

Henry’s form was now losing globs of ink. He was slowly changing back. But back into what?

Bendy was two feet away when Henry’s form changed in a large splash of ink. Everything from that old form had fallen away. And left in its place was Henry.

Except he was definitely not human, or not fully human.

Bendy looked over his friends form. Henry’s body was coated in ink in different places. His chest obscured by ink leading down into his right arm and making it as large as Bendy’s own. His left arm starting just above his elbow was a skinnier, shorter version of the same. He saw how the ink was all the way up to Henry’s hip on his left leg, and from what he could tell it looked to be that his right leg started below the knee as Henry’s pants were still visible. White hair was all that protruded from his head, the remaining brown coated in ink that fell to his shoulders.

Bendy couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down his face.

“I— I’m a monster— I hurt you— I— I can’t— I can’t stay here— I can’t—”

Suddenly a door creaked open. A small figure appeared and crossed into the ink and stood a bit away from the two, the three creating a triangle. The figure crossed it’s arms and frowned deeply.

“What the hell you two?” She growled. “Why are you fighting? Just hug it out.”

“What—“ Henry started.

“You heard me. Hugs, now, you both need them.”

“Who are you?” Bendy looked down at the person? Wait, it was a cat? A cat person?”

“ShinyZango. Now hugs. Do it.”

Bendy and Henry looked at each other, then back at ShinyZango.

“Now.” She said again tapping her foot.

The two shuffled towards each other. Pausing just as they got next to one another. They looked back at ShinyZango again. She then mimicked with her hands them hugging.

Bendy was the first to move, wrapping his arms around Henry and holding him tight.

“See, much better.” ShinyZango nodded as she said this, then turned around, walked back through the door, and shut it with a slight slam. The door then quickly opened and she poked her head back out. “MARGINAL STOP HURTING THEM!” And with that she slammed the door shut.

“What the hell was that?” Henry asked after Bendy released him.

“No idea…”


	3. Chapter 3

Henry ran, he ran as fast as he could. It was a blind, panic filled run. He launched himself through the studio, paying no mind to the searchers that occasionally popped up in his way, twisting and turning through the halls.

He had to get away. He had to get away. He had to get away.

Panting heavily, he slammed himself into a room. He quickly scanned it with a panicked but discerning glance, eyeing a door in the back of the large room. He quickly checked himself over and checked behind himself. He needed to stop leaving footprints and ink splatters. With panicked focus the ink on his body receded and he ran across the room, quickly entering the door on the opposite side to come to another hallway.

Henry kept running, he had to, he had to hide.

He was a monster.

He hated it.

He hated himself.

Finally, close to collapse, Henry found a small side room, he quickly barricaded the door with a small table, and then moved to a chair on the opposite side. Slumping over the ink quickly returned on his body as he lost consciousness.

* * *

Bendy woke up to a pounding headache. It was searing as it raged through his head.

“Nnnngggghhhhh” He moaned. “Why does my head hurt so bad?” He quietly whined under his breath. Then the last night’s events caught up to him.

“Henry…” Tears immediately sprung to his eyes. His only friend changed by this godforsaken studio. His only friend to talk to. His only friend. His only friend who had ran.

Bendy never felt more alone than in that moment. 

“Henry— Henry I’m so— I’m so sorry!” He sobbed. “It’s— It’s my— It’s my fault! Isn’t it!” Tears spilled down his cheeks. “Henry it’s not your fault!” He wailed. “It’s mine!” He dissolved into sobs that filled the room.

* * *

Henry woke up in tears.

He was so alone. So scared. Hurting.

It was his fault.

He had hurt Bendy. He had caused his friend’s first and only injury so far. That fact alone caused the tears to pour faster from his eyes.

Grief welled up inside him. He slid out of the chair. Kneeling on the ground, bent over his knees, clutching his head.

Everything hurt. His body was sore, he couldn’t lift himself up if he wanted to. He just stayed kneeling on the floor, his legs joining together and creating a massive puddle of ink on the floor of the room. He hated it. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want any of this.

Henry never felt more alone than in that moment.

“It’s all my fault. I— I did this. I hurt— I nearly killed— I— I— I am a monster.”  Tears fell to the floor. “It— It’s all my fault!” He cried out. “Bendy it’s not your fault!” He wailed. “It’s mine!” Henry’s sobs filled the room.

* * *

_In that very moment, both sobbing in different corners of the studio, both thinking everything was their fault._

_They screamed._

_It felt like they were being electrocuted. The pain that they felt was like a lightening bolt had struck them. It hurt. It hurt so much._

_And just like that it was gone._

* * *

Bendy panted heavily, doubled over on his line, shaking heavily.

“What—“ His throat was sore from the scream. He swallowed. “What was that?” He tried again, is voice a hoarse whisper.

It felt like his body was on fire. Every inch of him was in pure pain. It was a flash.

It was emotion. Bendy had felt nothing like that before. All of the rage, sorrow, hatred, loss.

It had hurt like nothing else had before.

* * *

Henry had fallen completely to the floor. His right arm joining in similarly to the state his legs were; a goopy mess on the floor. He panted hoarsely.

“What—“ He swallowed, throat raw. “What was that?”

It felt awful. It was pure pain running through every inch of his body at once.

It was pure volatile emotion. Hatred, rage, sorrow, loss. All flowing through him at once.

It had hurt like nothing else had before.

* * *

“I— I need to calm down…” Bendy whispered. “I need to think this out.”

* * *

“I— Shouldn’t have come here. I have just screwed everything up. I am— It’s my fault.”

* * *

Bendy felt the wave of sadness.

But this time. He knew it wasn’t his. He realized with a sudden start that this emotion was Henry’s.

“Henry. Henry are you feeling the same things I am?” He said to himself. “Henry please. You need to think about how things will get better.”

Bendy knew what he had to do.

“Henry. Henry I’m going to find you. Henry you need to know it’s not your fault.” It’s mine.

“Henry. Please. Please stay strong.” Bendy pushed himself off the table and into the ink.

“Henry I’m coming.”

* * *

Henry felt nothing. He was emotionally and physically spent. He had managed to push himself up and propped himself agains the leg of the table.

“Bendy…” He hated it. The idea that he had hurt his friend. He was no better than the searchers or “Bendy”.

He shouldn’t have come to the studio.

But then what would have happened to Bendy?

Henry stared at the floor, watching as the ink from his body spread into the cracks and crevices of the floor.

Bendy wouldn’t have ever known him. He wouldn’t have been told promises of getting out of the studio. He wouldn’t have been hurt.

Bendy would never have had a friend.

Henry stared at the shoddily barricaded door.

What was the point?

He didn’t want to face Bendy. Because what if Bendy didn’t forgive him? What if Bendy hated him? What if Bendy thought he was as much of a monster as he did?

What was the point?

Henry sank a little bit lower into the puddle.

_**What was the point?** _


	4. Chapter 4

**_What’s the point?_ **

Bendy left the room, looking down the hallway that Henry had torn through as he had ran from the fight Bendy noticed inky splotches on the walls that looked like handprints. Henry probably hand pushed himself off the walls in order to keep speed. Bendy nodded to himself and started to follow after them. At least Henry had made it easier for him to find him this way. Bendy quickly moved down the hall, he had to find Henry.

He had to because the question  that kept running through his head was frightening.

**_What’s the point?_ **

Bendy had to stay focused. He had to. But it was hard when your head felt like it was full of cotton. He felt drained and tired. And like something was pulling away from him. But he had to keep going. He had to. He had to find Henry.

**_What’s the point?_ **

_The point is I’m coming for you Henry. The point is I need you. The point is you are my friend. The point is that I care for you._

**_What’s the point?_ **

Bendy came to a junction. Slightly panting as he scanned the open area in front of him. He winced as he raised his left arm. His left shoulder throbbed from the still healing cut.

He needed to focus.

He then spotted it. Down the right hallway. Another handprint on the wall.

**_What’s the point?_ **

There was that cotton feeling again. Stuffing up his head. He paused and shook his head to try and clear it.

Then the searchers came.

There were ten that came up out of their puddles initially and immediately started to come at him. He swung his right arm knocking the first wave of three into the wall. They just kept coming.

His stuffed up head made him sluggish.

Two of them attacked him from behind. Making him fall forward and cry out in pain. He caught himself, shoulder screaming in protest, and reached behind himself yanking the two off of him and threw them into the wall. He had to get away.

Bendy launched himself towards the handprint and down the hallway. Managing to shake the searchers that had come after him off his tail. He launched himself into a side room blocking off the door.

He panted hard. As his shoulders sagged in relieve that throbbing pain came back. He winced again.

**_What’s the point?_ **

A deep growl reverberated through his throat. What was going on? Why was there so much negativity coming from Henry? Why was Henry feeling like this?

Bendy leaned heavily against the wall of the room. Listening to what was going on outside the door, waiting for the searchers to leave the area.

_Henry._

_I’m coming for you Henry. I just need you to hold on. Please Henry. All I’m asking is for you to hold yourself together a little bit longer._

**_What’s the point?_ **

It was silent. Time to move on.

Bendy left the safety of the room again. Head still filled with that fuzzy feeling. But he had to keep going.

He scanned the hallway. Noting another handprint that smeared downward towards the floor. He continued on.

**_What’s the point?_ **

Bendy had been searching for such a long time. He had fought off so many attacks. How had Henry done it? How had he gotten through this mess of a building?

Bendy had found a handprint just outside a doorway. He entered the room. He looked around trying to find clues.

There was nothing.

Not a single handprint or footprint in sight.

Where had he gone?

Bendy paused. Looking around the room. Where had Henry gone? Then he noticed the door.

There was a door in the back of the room that was ajar. Leading to what looked to be another hallway. Bendy crossed the room quickly. He had to be close.

His head didn’t feel as stuffy.

Looking down the hallway. He didn’t spy another handprint. But it seemed there were splatters of ink against the wall at floor height.

Bendy followed along.

**_There is no point._ **

_NO! HENRY! PLEASE!_

Bendy quickened his pace.

Then he saw it. The ink splatters against the wall stopped at a door. He yanked on the handle, trying to push the door in. He heard the scraping of a chair against the wood floor on the other side.

He pushed the door again. It still didn’t budge.

He backed up as far as he could and launched himself at the door.

The chair that had been in the way had toppled over. The door swung open.

Bendy gasped. Henry had his back leaned up against a desk. Legs and arms not discernible from each other. Henry seemed to be sinking into himself.

Bendy whined. Henry looked up.

They locked eyes.  


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a little while! So let's remedy that with a new chapter!

They stared at each other.

The silent tension in the room made Bendy nervous, he barely felt it but feeling of defeat was heavy from Henry, the bond they shared still muffled and muted. Henry’s eye dropped to the ground. Another few moments of silence passed the only sound in the room was Bendy’s heavy breaths slowing down and evening out.

“Why did you come.” Henry said, words somewhat difficult to make out through the ink that Bendy assumed was in his throat, gravelly and a touch deeper than his regular voice.

Bendy didn’t know what to say. It should have been obvious to Henry. Or at least Bendy thought it should have been.

Maybe Bendy had been wrong.

He blinked back some tears that were welling up and whined gently trying to get Henry to look at him. Henry’s head didn’t move.

“I hurt you.” Bendy flinched at Henry’s words. They were said as facts as if coming from a lecture. It was true but Bendy didn’t care he just wanted Henry back. He tried thinking about how much he cared for Henry, trying to use the bond to send his thoughts across, but Henry didn’t move.

“I’m a monster.” Bendy’s eye widened, shocked because he’d heard that phrase before.

He had said it himself.

Bendy let his monster form fall away, leaving the paper just a little ways from Henry’s pool of ink.

“Henry you aren’t a monster.” Bendy pleaded from his page.

“I am.”

“No you aren’t. Just like how-” He paused, gathering up the courage to continue. “Just like how I’m not a monster. You are still the Henry I know and would do anything for.” Bendy watched Henry’s movements from the page. Henry finally looked at him, his eye now black with a pinprick of green staring back at Bendy.

“I hurt you.” Henry stated. Bendy noticed Henry’s teeth had become sharp like how his were when he went berserk.

“Yes, but you stopped. Henry it’s not your fault.” Bendy pleaded.

“I hurt you. I caused you pain. I don’t ever want to do that again.” Henry turned his head away from Bendy. “I shouldn’t have come.” Bendy’s eyes immediately filled with tear. With the right half of Henry’s face pointed at him, coated in ink he couldn’t see what Henry’s expression was.

“I was glad you did though, but now…” Bendy’s voice trembled. “Your right. You shouldn’t have come. It’s all my fault some how. I know it. It’s because of me that you got affected by this place.” Bendy had tears streaming down his face. He turned away from Henry sitting on his line and wrapping his arms around his knees, becoming as small as he possibly could.

Henry turned back towards Bendy eye wide and tears flowing down. He’d felt it. Through the bond, the pain and loneliness that Bendy was feeling, first somewhat dull but now coming through full force. It shook him to his core.

He knew what he had to do.

Henry closed his eye and focused. He focused hard and at first it felt like nothing was happening. Then he felt it, his right arm came out of the puddle of ink redefining itself again, he wiggled his fingers making sure they all moved before he continued. Next his left leg came out ink puddle slowly shrinking in size. His right leg followed. And finally his left arm.

Now with limbs all redefined he took a deep steadying breath before continuing on. He thought about being human. Am just as before the ink slowly pulled away from his body. He waited until the feeling stopped before opening his eyes. And there he was, back to being human, the pentagram on his right palm going from glowing red to a solid black.

“Bendy.” Henry tried. His voice once again normal as well. Bendy looked up briefly before looking back to his arms, he paused a moment before Bendy shot up standing on his line and pointed at Henry.

“You’re back to normal!?!? How??!?!! What?!?” Bendy stuttered. Henry sadly smiled as he picked up Bendy’s page.

“I don’t really understand it myself. But you have this thing to thank for what I’ve transformed into.” Henry showed Bendy his palm as he lifted Bendy’s page.

“What on earth? Henry are you alright? It doesn’t hurt does it? And our bond! I can feel it better again but it’s still sort of iffy? Are you okay?” Bendy let loose with the string of questions. Only pausing when he noticed Henry’s downcast expression.

“I don’t really know myself bud. It’s just there. And if I lose my focus I turn into… Well that. And I just, don’t really know anymore.” Henry sighed.

“I understand. You are still getting used to your limits just like I am.” Bendy said quietly. “But Henry, you scared me so much, I-” Bendy cut himself off trying to hold in a sob. “I thought I lost you!” Henry’s eyes widened, he hadn’t realized, what had he done.

“Bendy. Bendy I’m so sorry. I was selfish. I should have realized it would have affected you too through the bond. And I am so sorry it even crossed my mind that I should give up. You are the best thing that has happened to me in here and I took you for granted. I don’t ever want to do that to you again. You mean a lot to me bud.” Henry looked down as he spoke, not wanting to look Bendy in the eye.

“Henry… You’re the best thing that has happened to me too. I think, no, I know that if we work together we can figure ourselves out. You just have to trust me.” Bendy reached towards Henry’s hand. A slight bump against Henry’s hand as Bendy pressed his against the paper.  

“Thanks bud.” Henry finally smiled. It was still a sad smile, but less so than previous, Bendy knew from the feelings coming his way that Henry still doubted himself. A yawn came from Bendy. “You seem a little tired there.” Henry weakly chuckled.

“Yeah I was chasing down you. Wouldn’t stop for anything.” Bendy spoke through another yawn.

“How about we get some rest, but let’s find another room real quick. You did a number on that door.” Another weak chuckle from Henry followed by Bendy’s own worn out laugh. Henry picked himself up off the ground and moved out of the room. Finding another safe and lockable room a few doors back the way they had come.

Getting themselves comfortable and secure in the room, Bendy on the easel in the back and Henry sitting in a chair nearby. Henry eventually leaned onto the easel right next to Bendy’s page and Bendy lay against the side of it. Both as close as possible to each other. The last lazy thoughts Henry had floated through before his eyes fluttered closed.

‘I will try my best for Bendy. I don’t want that to ever happen again. He deserves better. He deserves to get out of the studio he deserves a chance to see the world outside of this hell hole.’

'I don’t.’


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Howdy y’all, bet you didn’t think you’d see this again for a little while.
> 
> (Tbh me neither cause school, but lack of sleep and getting that writing bug really doesn’t help...)
> 
> Anyways! It’s high time we got another chapter don’t you think! So without further ado Chapter 6 awaits. Tonight’s theme: a bit of introspection and reflection...
> 
> Enjoy!

Bendy woke up first, yawning widely before blinking out at the room they were in. Henry’s breathing was slightly raspy as it passed through his lips. Bendy couldn’t help but stare at the man in sadness. Henry’s right palm revealed a thickly lined pentagram, not too different from the one in the room Henry had passed out in…

* * *

 

Bendy had just met Henry all of 10 minutes ago. He’d called out to Henry and starting talking to the rather disheveled man as soon as he’d begun to make his way over. Confined to the wall he’d eventually followed Henry down further into the studio along the stairwell before becoming stuck himself.

“This is the end for me Henry! I can’t help you anymore! And we were just becoming pals too!” Bendy lamented from the wall. Henry had yet to say anything causing the toon to become suspicious. “Henry?” He looked up only to find his new friend gone. “Henry? You left me?” He was slightly shocked that the old man would simply leave him just like that.

“Ahem.” Bendy quickly turned to find Henry staring at him with a small smirk. “I didn’t leave you, just went to grab something.” Henry waved a piece of paper in his hand.

“What’s that for?” Bendy asked perking up again.

“Well we’re gonna see if this works.” Henry held the paper against the wall as maneuvered the pen that he’d had behind it on the page. “See if you can jump on this.” Henry prompted, leveling the paper so that the line was near Bendy’s feet.

“I’m not sure this is gonna work Henry. It was nice knowing you, even if it was just like 5 minutes.” Bendy sighed.

“You haven’t even tried it you goofball.” Henry chuckled, shaking the page to prompt Bendy again.

“Alright… I doubt this is gonna work.” Bendy stepped forward finding the feeling of transferring from the wall to the page somewhat strange, but he’d done it, now on the page he hopped around a bit before looking at Henry. “Well, what do you know!” Bendy was impressed.

“See I told you.” Henry smirked. “Now you can guide me through the rest of this place.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know much more than you do about what’s down here, or even what’s up there, you crash landed pretty hard.” Bendy chuckled recalling how the man had fallen flat on his behind.

“Then we’ll get through this together.” Henry sighed rubbing the back of his head.

“Yeah! Don’t worry! I’ll help you get out no problem!” Bendy cheered on the man.

“Heh. Then let’s get a move on.” Henry said clutching the axe in his dominate hand as he held Bendy’s new home in the other and began to walk further into the studio.

It wasn’t long until they found themselves at a doorway. Henry seemed to pause slightly before shaking his head. They moved into the room and before Bendy could say anything Henry fell forwards onto an pentagram of ink on the floor, axe smearing a few lines as it fell with him. Henry was out cold.

Bendy found himself unable to cry out to Henry as he too, succumbed to unconsciousness.

* * *

 

Henry’s breathing was getting worse, Bendy noted, as Henry seemed to wince at something unseen. The pentagram had begun changing, thickening and oozing out black ink, becoming a deep gray to Bendy. Henry muttered something, but due to the ink and him turning his head Bendy could not make out the words.

Bendy sighed. The bond still felt strained, like something was tugging them away from each other, and Bendy hated that. Because he’d only ever felt the bond grow between them, especially after the first time he had transformed…

* * *

 

Henry had turned down the hallway, it was only getting darker in the studio it seemed, many of the lights flickering out or off completely. The ink on the floor thick and heavy as Henry stepped through it. He needed to keep going, getting out of the studio was top priority, no time to rest. Bendy watched the man as he looked around the studio, he seemed tired, Bendy decided it was high time they changed that.

“Henry do you think you should rest a little? You seem a bit tired…” Bendy trailed off as Henry came to a halt.

“I’m fine. Just need to keep going.” Henry sighed. Just as Bendy was about to argue with the man a low moaning sound began.

“What’s that?” Bendy asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like the sound of it.” Henry stated.

Suddenly, things came out of the ink, black and humanoid. The moaning only getting louder and louder as they approached. Henry froze. These things, what were they? They looked almost like a person. His thoughts drifted to the coffins that had been in the room he’d passed out in, a strange itch flitted his skin on his right palm, but there was nothing he could do about it. These things were drawing closer and closer, as if they were searching for something, or someone.

Henry blindly swung his axe, clutching Bendy’s page finally hearing the toon cry out at him to get moving. The first swing failed to connect with anything, but the next landed a solid hit, or as solid of a hit to a being made of ink could be. The creature dissolved with a splash, surprising Henry slightly, but the man had to keep going. Unfortunately there were only more creatures willing to take place of the first.

Henry had taken out at least seven of these creatures, but found that they only kept coming, and he was finding himself tiring out. He wasn’t as young as he used to be. Bendy had seemed to pick up on this.

“Henry, you might have to run, these things keep coming!” Bendy cried out. Henry took that as his cue and began running trying to get away from the creatures.

Then his foot caught, both the axe he’d had a death grip on and Bendy’s page flew into the air before landing in the ink some ways away from him.

“Bendy!” Henry called out trying to get back up but the creatures ever searching for whatever it was came closer and started to push him down into the ink. Henry thought to himself as he struggled that ‘Searchers’ was a good term for them. Henry pushed against them, but they only kept coming.

“Henry! Henry I’m sinking into the ink! Hen—“ The toons cries were cut off as the ink enveloped his page. Guilt ripped through Henry, there was no way to reach the toon as the searchers kept pulling him down.

Henry’s last thought before being submerged in the ink was of him saying something along the lines of giving the studio his life, an apt description of the situation he found himself in.

Then he felt it. A rumbling in the floor boards, something roared out, and Henry was even more terrified. Had that thing from before followed him? There was suddenly a release of pressure from his back, pushing himself up and sputtering out the ink that had entered his mouth, he stared in shock and horror as a huge, black, beast swung it’s arms at the searchers.

The beast roared out again, smashing a searcher in it’s grasp into the wall, followed quickly by swinging it’s arm in a hammer like motion on another near it. Henry quickly ran to get the axe. However it spotted him, Henry tripped and fell over again, clutching the axe handle on his way down as the creature came towards him.

“STAY BACK!” Henry cried out, putting the axe out for defense. The creature suddenly halted, looking at the man curiously, the pinprick of white in it’s eye seemed to grow slightly as it calmed down. It threw it’s hands up in a placating manner.

Henry was confused. Why wasn’t it attacking? It had taken to looking over itself instead of him for the moment. The creature he then realized looked very different from the long gangly one that had attacked him before he met Bendy. Bendy! Henry ran his hands through the ink in the area, a slight twitch at the palm of his right hand made him scratch at it momentarily before continuing to plunge his hands into the ink.

“Come on, come on, come on! Where is it! Bendy where are you.” He said under his breath before he heard a whine. Looking behind him he found the creature staring at him, still in the same place, with a confused but happy look to it.

“What are you smiling about? I’m trying to find my friend and all you are doing is making me nervous!” Henry almost shouted with the panic he found himself in. The creature looked at him in shock before suddenly dissolving in a splash of ink, left behind was a single white page of paper.

“Henry it’s me!” Bendy coughed. Henry rushed over grasping the page firmly but carefully.

“Bendy?!?” Henry asked incredulous. There was no way that the tiny toon had become that hulking beast. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t really know myself. All I remember was being really scared for you and then being even more scared by how much ink there was…” Bendy looked down at the line for a moment. “But you’re okay now!” Bendy sighed in relief.

“Yeah… Let’s find somewhere to rest up…” Henry seemed still shaken by the events that had just transpired.

“Yeah that sounds like a good idea.” Bendy agreed nodding his head quickly.

* * *

 

Bendy watched as the ink surrounded Henry’s entire right arm, it began dripping downwards and floating upwards, thickening slowly but with a ceaseless certainty. Henry seemed to have calmed down in his sleep, so the ink had paused slightly from continuing on it’s march of encasing the man again. Bendy wanted to help Henry understand it, but like his own other form he barely understood it himself, he curled up on his line wrapping his arms around his knees.

The fact that they both went ‘berserk’ was unnerving as well. Bendy had been terrified for Henry once he realized it was still him under the ink. Bendy wondered if it had been the same when Henry had to deal with Bendy’s rampage that first time.

* * *

 

They had been surrounded by another large group of searchers. Bendy had transformed and was smashing twice as many searchers as Henry was. Though the hoard seemed to be thinning, it had been a long battle and Henry was getting concerned with how long the toon had been in the other form. Bendy had mentioned that it felt like he was becoming something else when he was in that other form for too long, and so far that limit hadn’t been pushed, but it was only a matter of time.

“How are you doing bud?” Henry asked swiping his axe forward into another searcher. There was no reply. “Bendy?” Henry tried again as he finally cleared the last searcher from in front of him. A deep growl reverberated from where bendy was. “Bendy…” Henry backed up slowly as he realized the toon had finally surpassed the limit of the form. Horns sharpened and ink flowing more from the upwards and downwards drips. As Bendy turned towards him he knew it was time to run, the white dot of Bendy’s eye had shrunk down to a pinprick of light, and his teeth had sharpened into daggers.

Henry launched himself out of the room. A loud roar came from Bendy as he pursued him. The game of cat and mouse had begun.

Henry launched down the hallway, turning through tight corners and tossing anything lining the walls onto the floor. Bendy was not deterred by any of this. The toon turned beast roared again as it launched itself at him, reaching for him, picking him up and forcing Henry to drop the axe that was his only protection. Henry struggled against the grip, free hand pushing against the massive, clawed fingers that held him tightly.

Bendy squeezed his hand around him, grinning maniacally as Henry gasped out for air. Henry saw it out of the corner of his eye, Bendy’s other hand coming down over his head. He reached forwards desperately, finding his hand just barely connecting with the ink that was on Bendy’s head. Bendy froze. White light widening, teeth returning to the permanent grin, horns and ink smoothing out. Henry smiled quietly as he finally lost consciousness.

* * *

 

Bendy shivered. He remembered feeling like such a monster in that moment, he’d nearly killed Henry…

“Not your fault…” Henry muttered loud enough that the ink allowed it to pass through his throat. Bendy looked over too the man, the ink had started coating his legs again, crawling it’s way up his left and right legs. Bendy sighed. Remembering the argument that had followed after leaving Henry in a room only to run away, Henry had found him in his hiding spot and had shouted at him just as much as he had. It was kinda funny, he chuckled slightly, how stubborn the two of them were.

Henry shifted again causing the desk to creak from the additional weight of the ink. Bendy held his breath, hoping that Henry wouldn’t wake just yet, the man needed the sleep. When he was sure that Henry was not going to move again he released it.

Bendy knew that their fight before they had reunited was not Henry’s fault, and in a way it wasn’t his either, but he still felt like it was due to him. Bendy knew that Henry would tell him that it wasn’t his fault at all. Just as he’d said before. But there was still that creeping feeling of doubt, the same doubt that he’d felt towards Henry staying with him as he was searching for him, and the same doubt he’d felt after Henry said that Bendy wasn’t a monster.

It was just, getting really hard to believe…

Bendy sighed, and decided to shut his eyes, some more sleep never hurt.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hey, hey... Who want's chapter 7?

Henry blinked at the flickering light when he opened his eye. Rubbing at his face with his left hand, it felt too cool to the touch. The heating system in the studio wasn’t down was it? It didn’t feel any cooler, so why was his hand… oh, the ink.

Henry looked down and found that once again ink coated his body. With a heavy sigh he focused inwards trying to get the ink to recede again. It didn’t budge. A light growl escaped his lips.

“Henry?” Bendy asked, rubbing at his eyes.

“Yes it’s me…” He answered in return, sighing at his current state. He tried closing his eye and focusing again. But it just wasn’t working. Opening his eye and growling in frustration again he found the little toon staring at him curiously. 

“…Does it hurt?” Bendy asked quietly, quickly looking down at the line he sat on when Henry turned towards him.

“No. Thankfully. It… Feels normal? Or well, like it is my body, but it isn’t?” Henry struggled to explain. “It’s not bad, but not good? And I’m just muddling this up.” Henry grunted in annoyance as the ink dripped down his nose before branching off to the side. He raised his hand to wipe at his face before pausing. “…I don’t have like, a huge smear of ink on my face do I?” Henry asked squinting slightly, realizing that he’d ran his hand down his face only moments before.

“Umm… No? I mean… there’s the ink dripping down the side of your face… but no smears?” Bendy responded hoping that was the answer that Henry was seeking.

Henry breathed out and rubbed away the drip that had come down his face. He mentally noted that the ink didn’t remove itself from his body when he touched bare skin, he poked at his shirt to see if it too did the same, and found that no matter what the ink was there to stay. Thinking about it, Henry realized that his shirt hadn’t been stained at all. While it felt like a part of his his body, feeling the fabric beneath his fingers through the ink, it also felt as if it were a protective layer against what was around him.

“…Henry?” Bendy called out snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Ah sorry. Trying to get the ink to back off. It uh… Doesn’t seem to be working at the moment.” Henry sighed.

“It’s alright Henry we can sit for a while.” Bendy tried to cheer him up.

“I guess, but to be honest I’d prefer if we kept moving, especially since I need to find my axe. I dropped it somewhere…” Henry leaned back in the chair, right forearm resting on the floor.

“I know, but a little bit longer isn’t going to hurt us?” Bendy smiled slightly, trying to get Henry to relax. He’d noticed that now that Henry was awake and thinking about things, the ink on his shoulders would rise up and drip more when he got agitated. Bendy hoped that maybe if he could get Henry to relax that would help the man. “…Hey! How about we tell stories!” Bendy smiled widely at Henry now.

“Stories huh?” Henry smirked at the toon who’d settled into a seated position and nodded his head fervently.

“Yeah like we could take turns and tell stories, either real or made up! Or you could just tell me stuff. Or I could. Whatever you want!” Bendy grinned. Henry couldn’t help but chuckle as the little demon bounced in place excitedly.

“Do you have a story in mind?” Henry raised his eyebrow as a small smirk came to his lips. The tip of his elongated canines visible as he spoke. The thought that the sharp teeth didn’t look exactly unnatural passed through Bendy’s head briefly before he refocused on the situation at hand.

“How about… Do you have any funny stories from when you were a kid?” Bendy asked curious of Henry’s childhood now that they had some down time. Henry blinked in surprise before chuckling.

“Oh I used to get into all sorts of stuff with my sister.” He laughed quietly. Henry cut his laughter off quickly though, the ink distorting his laugh making it sound harsh to his ears. Henry looked to the floor with a heavy sigh. Bendy felt the annoyance and loss from Henry through their bond, he had to do something.

“What kind of stuff?” Bendy asked trying to get the man to start the story again. 

“Hmmm… One time June picked a fight with this kid that called me stupid.”

“What happened!” Bendy leaned forward. Henry smiled with closed lips. Bendy felt the nervousness from Henry about his appearance.

“She beat the kid up after school and he ran crying home. The next week he wrote me an apology letter and left me alone after that.” Henry smiled fully and barked a laugh. He covered his mouth as he continued to chuckle.

“Sounds like she’s really tough!” Bendy smiled glad that Henry was feeling happy.

“Ah June’s a sweetheart though… We used to camp in the summer pretty much every other weekend. We’d go star gazing and just talk until the sun started rising. We’d talk about anything and everything. I remember telling her about studying art. Our parents, while supportive of most things, didn’t take too kindly to me wanting to pursue it. We talked about the pros and cons, the work I’d have to do in order to reach my dream, what it would take to convince our parents. But she really did believe in me, all the way, I couldn’t ask for a better shoulder to lean on. We still keep in touch, try to go out and visit her and her husband and daughters every so often…” Henry trailed off. While he had been talking, the ink had once again receded. Bendy thought it was the calmness that Henry felt when talking about his family, he’d felt Henry’s happiness of the memories, quite faint, but still there, through the bond.

“She sounds swell Henry!” Bendy smiled widely. “And look! The ink receded!” Henry looked down at himself and found that the black substance had finally removed itself. A faint twinge in his right hand caused him to rub his thumb over the pentagram.

“I guess we better get moving then.” Henry said as he stood up and stretched. Bendy stood up as well copying Henry’s movements subconsciously. “Let’s try to find the axe first… I’d rather not use that… Form? If we can help it, especially since it took so long to get out of it.” Henry sighed as he picked up Bendy’s page.

“I can understand that. Well, let’s get looking!” Bendy puffed out his chest.

“I think it’s going to be back some ways… I vaguely remember dropping it near a staircase I think? Or was it a stack of crates…” Henry began muttering to himself as he walked out the door into the hallway. Bendy simply stayed silent. He watched Henry carefully, both for fear of the man losing himself again, and simply because he noticed how tired Henry seemed to be.

It wasn’t fair.

The studio had already thrown so much at them, why did Henry have to be affected too? And Henry’s sister…

Bendy couldn’t deny the twinge of sadness that Henry had felt when he’d wrapped up talking about his sister. He’d purposefully had changed topics, seeing Henry deal with that inner conflict was just heartbreaking for the little toon. So he’d done what he did best: caused a distraction.

Henry continued through the twists and turns of the hallways. Moving carefully but quickly to the possible location of the axe. But it still felt like age.

Eventually Bendy noticed how tired Henry looked, the bags under his eyes darkened, and Henry had begun yawning more frequently again.

“Hey Henry, maybe we should take a quick nap. Like just a 15 minute break maybe?” Bendy prompted.

“No, I’m fine, we’ve got to get that axe back.” Henry said trying to power through. But then he felt it. A cool slow drip of something thick moving down the side of his face. Wiping his left hand at it, it came back black. Ink.

“Henry, I really think we should pause for a little while.” Bendy said noticing the look on Henry’s face and the palm of his left hand from his vantage point.

“Alright let’s look for a good room to pause in.” Henry sighed. Trying a few doors before finding a small room they quickly holed up for the time being. Bendy yawned widely on his page. “Looks like a quick nap should do us both some good.” Henry quietly chuckled.

“Yeah I think so. Just a quick one.” Bendy’s eyelids fluttered close, and he was out like a light.

“A quick one…” Henry watched the toon. As soon as he was sure that Bendy was asleep he quickly got up and left the room.

“It’s around here somewhere I know it. It has to be.” Henry thought to himself as he checked the area for the axe.

_**WHACK** _

Henry saw black.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is literally the longest chapter of anything I have ever written.
> 
> 4,035 words.
> 
> That long. 
> 
> So my little sheep, please prepare yourselves, you don’t want to sleep through this one…

It was so dark.

Everything was black.

It seemed to pull him in.

Beckoning to him.

It was thick like the ink that had come to coat his body.

Sticking to him like syrup.

Pulling him down.

He struggled against it.

Pushing it away.

It kept coming back.

Trying to claim him.

It was so hard to fight against it.

Should he just give in?

Suddenly the world began to change.

Black to gray to white.

Something was different.

Something inside told him he couldn’t just give in.

Black tendrils came at him.

But he was prepared this time.

He would fight it.

For as long as he could.

* * *

 

Henry groaned as his head throbbed with pain, screwing his eyes shut against the light that was in the room. There was a ringing in his ears, noises in the room were muffled and distant. It was like having come out of a battle field. His head lolled to the side. Trying to combat the light that seemed to surround him.

Something was off.

He realized he was standing upright, body tied to a post of some kind, brain trying to make sense of his position as he still refused to open his eyes. He felt nauseous, making him more than willing to keep his eyes closed for a longer period of time. A muted shuffling noise came to him. Seemingly distant yet close at the same time. Nothing seemed to make sense to him at the moment. It was all a blur.

What had happened to him?

The last he remembered was he and Bendy finding a room to nap in and then… He drew a blank, his mind trying to give him the events before now but keeping them out of reach. He felt bile rising in his throat, nausea returning from the sudden scent of ink hitting his nostrils. Vile and pungent. He groaned again, barely able to keep his head upright, trying to open his eyes finding the light, though dull in the room he was in, was enough to send another wave of nausea through his body.

He heard something then. A voice maybe. He couldn’t tell. It was smooth though, like someone was spreading butter. The tone and cadence was even and kind. If he could only hear the words. It felt so familiar somehow. Like he’d known this voice from somewhere. He just couldn’t place it, still muffled by the ringing in his head, however the voice was coming closer.

A hand ran down his right cheek, causing a shiver to run down his spine from the skin on skin contact, a grunt of discomfort came from his throat. The hand retracted only to return, this time tracing the vile reminder that he was possibly not fully human anymore on his palm, another shiver down his spine as he clenched his own hand into a fist to get the foreign hand to stop. He screwed his eyes shut as the hand once again returned to his face, cupping his cheek gently, uncomfortable as he felt the breath of the owner on his neck.

“——— mark of our Lord.” Whatever else was said was lost.

“Hhhhnnnnn...” He failed to speak fearing the bile would return.

“Oh dear—————— little sheep.” Who’s voice was this. He knew it didn’t he. He must have heard it somewhere before. The ringing in his ears slowly fading as if the static on a radio was turned down.

“Who—“ Henry swallowed thickly. “Who are you?” Another swallow to keep the sudden rise of bile down. “What— What do you want?”

“My lost little sheep don’t you recall? You surely remember who I am.” The voice chuckled. Henry tried to open his eyes, to get a visual on the person in front of him, blinking them open he found a man, with part of a cardboard cut out being used as a mask, eyes barely visible and piercing through the broken mouth of Bendy. “Our Lord has marked you as well. You should know by now what that means.”

“Who are you?” Henry asked again, stressing that he did not know the voice behind the mask. He looked around the room trying to figure out where he was, finding nothing to aid him in placing his location. He looked down, as it was easier to stare where the lights were not as bright, only to gasp at the pentagram at his feet, drawn in thick, black lines, a mirror image of the one he’d fallen on what seemed to be a life time ago.

“Oh dear little sheep,” The voice of the masked man in front of him pulled him back, “perhaps the face of the Lord’s prophet will enlighten you.” The man removed the mask with a slow fluid movement. Head turned down until he raised his head to lock eyes locked with Henry. A thick black pentagram, not unlike Henry’s own, oozing with ink that slowly fell down his face, was marked against the skin.

Henry wished that he could move, he would have backed away as far as he could from the man in front of him, the crazed stare something he wished he could escape from.

“Lawrence, Sammy Lawrence.”

* * *

 

Bendy yawned widely. It seemed their fifteen minute nap had lasted longer that and it was definitely time to get moving once again. Bendy was worried that Henry would get really stressed the longer he went without the axe, it was all too much like how he’d been with finding Henry, and with Henry still being new to his other form him losing control was…

Bendy shook his head. He didn’t want to think about that. They were in this together now and would get through everything this studio threw at them, one way or another. Bendy stood up ready to bid Henry good morning after their nap, only to find the chair in the room vacant. Bendy could only stare at the chair with sadness. Henry had left again. Bendy sat back down.

“Maybe he left a few minutes ago… He probably remembered where the axe was and just went to grab it. I bet he’ll be back any minute now.” He said to himself, trying to think positively. Henry wouldn’t have left him. He had promised. Time seemed to crawl by, especially difficult with no time piece in the room who’s ticks marched by counting the seconds as they passed. A deep sigh left him as he stood up again.

He was mad. Had Henry really broken his promise. Had Henry really seriously gone and left him for an axe of all things. Bendy growled. How dare he, how dare Henry break his trust after everything they had been through. He should have stayed awake longer. Made sure that Henry had slept. Made sure that Henry had stayed by his side. How. Dare. Henry. Do. This.

The toon growled again. Eyes flashing in a rage that had never been felt before. He was going to find Henry. He would make sure of it.

And Henry wasn’t going to like him when he found him...

* * *

 

“So little sheep you finally remember. Delightful. However, I find it strange that our Lord has marked you. Traitor to him.” Sammy sneered.

“Your ‘Lord’ didn’t exist while I was here—“ Henry growled out before getting cut off. Cheek stinging from having Sammy’s hand slapped across it.  

“Our Lord, you fool.” Sammy hissed, the ink from his pentagram growing thicker and dripping further down his face. Sammy pulled back and composed himself, ink receding back to the position it had first been in. “You best respect our Lord, for he only has a few chosen ones, it would be a shame if you were not able to receive his grace properly.” Sammy turned away from him.

“What if I don’t want his grace.” Henry snapped. Sammy had turned back in time to notice how his sheep’s eyes flashed from normal to black, quite peculiar, hadn’t his followers mentioned something…

The imposter.

Sammy went back behind Henry again, looking over the Lord’s on his hand, comparing it to that to the one he’d painstakingly drawn below him. They were not the same. What was this odd mark, something extra in the circle, a small square, just under the line connecting two of the points of the star. Sammy snarled.

“So it seems you were not in fact chosen by our Lord.” Sammy returned in front of Henry. “We shall see if our Lord will still have you.”

“Good. Wait… what do you mean—“

“Sheep, sheep, sheep, it’s time for sleep.” Sammy’s voice was so smooth. Henry felt his eyelids droop. He shook his head violently trying to stop whatever was happening.

“Sheep, sheep, sheep, why won’t you sleep. All safe and snug in the barn with me. We played all day, now we will dream all night. Rest your head it’s time for bed. In the morning you will wake. And your imposter will be dead.”

Henry couldn’t help but let his eyes close and let the dark consume him.

* * *

 

Bendy growled as he searched over the area of the studio he was in.

He was livid.

Was he not important to him? Did he think that Bendy couldn’t help? Was he a waste of space to the man?

Every question only made him angrier.

Then he felt it.

A tug on the bond, soft at first nothing worrisome, but then it only grew, stronger and stronger and stronger.

And then it was gone.

A void was left behind. Not that the bond was gone. Just cut off. As if there was a wall between him and Henry. Different from when…

Bendy shook his head again, not wishing to think about that either. It was bad enough that the memories of hurting Henry were still spiraling in his mind. He didn’t need to be reminded of that pain.

Bendy’s rage was momentarily replaced by fear. Maybe it wasn’t Henry’s fault then? Maybe Henry was getting close to coming back and something had happened? Where was Henry?

Then that rage ripped through him. Henry wouldn’t be in this mess right now if he HAD JUST STAYED PUT FOR ONCE.

First it was him disappearing for whatever reason in the first place. Then he had ran away. Then he’d almost given up and lost himself to the ink.

Henry was going to not just get a long talking too from Bendy. Henry was going to really regret the decisions he’d been making. How dare he leave him AGAIN WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING. Bendy’s eye flashed red momentarily before he calmed down once again. He couldn’t let his rage get the better of him.

First priority was to find Henry.

Then make the man listen to him once and for all.

* * *

 

Bendy moved into the new area cautious but searching. This was the last available room before he was considering back tracking even further. He entered the main space, finding a strange pole with rope that was frayed circling it. Black ink circled it as well, but whatever had been marked there was long since destroyed.

It was silent in the room.

Every thing was deathly still.

The room suddenly was active, searchers came out of every corner, all reaching towards him with their dreadful moaning.

Bendy roared.

The room was in chaos. Searchers slammed into the wall and disintegrated, others pounded into ink puddles on the floor. The room growing a thick layer of black on the floor. Moans and screeches were layered under growls and roars. Everything was moving.

Feedback from speakers that Bendy had not noticed previously caused him to momentarily become distracted to what was going on around him.

“Little ram, please be a dear and take care of this for our Lord. We wouldn’t want him to be disappointed in you now would we.” A silkily smooth voice rung out through the room. “And my sheep, make sure that dearest ram doesn’t have to do too much. We wouldn’t want him tuckered out before our Lord comes to visit would we.” The voice stopped before feedback once again returned followed by a clicking noise cutting off the static that had followed.

The searchers in the room suddenly came at him full force. Launching themselves at his back and sides, pulling him down to the ground. More and more of them piled into the room and on top of him. He was beyond anger now, he was beyond furious, he was beyond rage even. He roared launching himself upwards. Only to be dragged back down by the sheer number of searchers that had piled themselves on top of him.

A rumbling from a gate that he’d missed caught his attention. Behind it, glossy black arms supported the weight of something that let out a tremendous roar, louder than anything Bendy had generated during the fighting moments before. When the gate was fully raised Bendy was shocked. Henry was there, back in berserk mode, breath seeming to steam out from the mouth that parted in the ink. Henry let out another roar, deep and guttural, Bendy wouldn’t deny that he was terrified, especially upon seeing Henry’s ink mouth part enough to see the sharpened teeth with long elongated canines behind it.

“Henry?!?!” Bendy cried out before his head got pushed down into the ink by the searchers. Bendy was terrified, how on earth was Henry in this state again? The speakers screeched to life once more.

“Little ram, be careful not to beat this imposter up too much would you. Our Lord would love to have a new play thing as well if you understand me.” Once again the speakers shut off.

“oUR LorD WilL NOt be disSAPOintEd” Henry answered the voice.

If Bendy had thought he was terrified before, now he truly was. He pushed against the searchers, struggling to get up. There were so many though, swarming his back, holding him down. He had to move though. Henry was starting to move forwards, stalking him like prey, watching him with an unblinking eye.

Bendy poured all of his strength into launching upwards, finally launching many of the searchers off of his back and swinging his arms in a wide arc in order to take out as many searchers as he could in one fell swoop.

He faced Henry, they both paused, and at the same time; they roared as they charged forwards at each other. They clashed, both gripping each other’s enlarged hands and shoving forwards at each other. Bendy was swung into the wall, he got up as quickly as he could, forced to crush more searchers as they came at him again. By the time he’d gotten up he was forced to get out of the way once again as Henry was charging at him with the spike protruding forwards, dangerously close to cutting into him again.

When Henry only caught air, he turned and roared again, the searchers in the area growing more and more agitated once again. The moans overwhelmingly loud now.

“HENRY YOU HAVE TO SNAP OUT OF IT!” Bendy shouted over the noise in the room. Henry seemed to pause momentarily before crouching down.

“OuR LorD WiLL be GivEN thE ImPOsteR. oUr LoRD wILl giVE uS HiS GraCE. wE aRe thE CHoSEn.” Henry growled out.

"CHOSEN FOR WHAT!?! TO BECOME THIS?!? HENRY YOU AREN'T THIS" Bendy shouted at the man beneath the ink.

"ouR LoRD ShaLL bLesS Us."

"Little ram shut this imposter up." The speakers flared to life again.

"YeS PrOPhet." Henry slowly nodded.

"YOU IDIOT, YOU STUPID, STUPID, IDIOT!!!" Bendy roared.  "WE WERE GOING TO DO THIS TOGETHER! AND YOU KEEP LEAVING ME BEHIND, TRYING TO DEAL WITH YOUR PROBLEMS ON YOUR OWN!" Bendy launched himself at Henry, slamming his back against the wall, eyes flashing red in rage. The searchers in the room stayed back, waiting to see what would happen.

"Little ram—"

"YOU KEEP LEAVING ME BEHIND WHEN WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PARTNERS!"

"Little—"

"IF YOU WANT TO DO EVERYTHING ON YOUR OWN FINE! SEE WHAT I CARE! YOU TAKE CARE OF IT! I'M SICK OF BEING LEFT ALONE AND SCARED OF NOT KNOWING WHETHER OR NOT YOU CARE ABOUT MY FEELINGS, IF YOU WANT TO HELP ME, IF I CAN EVEN TRUST YOU!" Bendy panted. The room was silent. Even the searchers stopped their moaning at Bendy's outburst.

Bendy stared at Henry’s unblinking eye. Bendy failed to notice the ink that had begun to drip to the floor from Henry's form. "I can't believe I thought you wanted to help, or wanted mine, I'm just a hinderance to you. Have fun with your new friend. I hope you're happy with your choices."

Bendy let him go and watched as Henry dropped to the floor, suddenly there was a large flood of ink as Henry returned to his more human state. It didn't stop there however, the ink continued to recede eventually leaving Henry there on the ground on all hands and knees. Arms trembling to support him. When Henry looked up at Bendy his eyes were solid black.

"BEndY..." Henry said quietly shattering the moment of silence in the room.

"It seems little ram you have failed to do your job." Henry winced and covered his ears, his right hand started to become covered in ink again. "So now... I will have to take matters into my own hands."

A man exited a door near the pole where the rope was. The searchers near there parted quickly, seemingly terrified of the man. Bendy growled lowly upon noticing the mask on the mans face, uneasy that his own face was being used to cover the man's.

"Oh so you don't like my face imposter? Well I don't very much like yours either." The man sneered. "I didn't want to get my hands dirty. But I guess I will do what the popes of the crusades did not; I will fight for my Lord."

"PrOpHEt— nO SamMY—hhHHhhNNnnNnn...“ Henry gritted out, eyes screwed shut, breathing hard as he fought against Sammy's control.

Bendy was shocked. The man spouting crazy talk was Sammy? The music director. The toon had seen many of the records on the wall at one point, each one of the most well remembered song, each with the man wearing his face as a mask's name written in bold font.

"You had your chance little ram," Sammy said coldly. "Both you and the imposter shall perish. You don't deserve his grace." Sammy pulled of the mask and tossed it aside revealing the mad glint in his eyes, the ink pouring down from the pentagram on his forehead down his face.

The ink seemed to consume him and pull pieces of his body away, his chest broad but his torso elongated and thin, almost as if just his spine and a layer of ink were there. Long clawed fingers  came off the thin delicate hands attached to spider like arms.

Everything about Sammy was too long.

Thin and gangly.

Terrifying.  

"OUr LorD DoES noT taKE KIndLy to THoSe wHO OpPosE HiM. AnD iN tHe NaME of oUR LoRD I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Sammy launched himself forward at Bendy.

* * *

 

**‘Give in.’**

_‘Stay strong.’_

**‘The Prophet is wrong, I haven’t failed our Lord, I haven’t gotten to prove myself.’**

_‘Bendy is in trouble and you are just sitting here, doing nothing to help him, you are worthless.’_

**‘Give in.’**

_‘Stay strong.’_

**‘The Lord will be pleased if you bring him the imposter. He would most likely make you his new favorite. Besides the Prophet is not as powerful as you are. You know how that battle turned out.’**

_‘Bendy needs your help. You’ve failed him so many times so far. You need to prove yourself.’_

**‘Give in.’**

_‘Stay strong.’_

_**‘Bendy doesn’t want me. Bendy said it himself. I have failed him too many times. He said it himself I haven’t given him any time of day.’** _

**‘Give in.’**

_’Stay strong.’_

**‘You don’t wish to disappoint the Lord. The imposter is nothing more than something to be crushed.’**

_‘You can change, you can make it up to him, you can help him.’_

**‘Give in.’**

_‘Stay strong.’_

**_‘I don’t know what to do anymore…’_ **

* * *

 

The searchers screeched as they were destroyed, both by Bendy and by Sammy. Noise of the battle seemed to fill every corner of the room. Bendy roared as Sammy hissed at him.

Ink leaked from multiple cuts on both of their bodies, each one breathing raggedly, both annoyed that their foe was not a puddle of ink below them.

“WhY WOn’T YoU DIE!” Sammy dashed forwards again, clawed hands grasping and raking at Bendy. Bendy only roared out in pain.

He didn’t know how much more he could take.

He didn’t know if his form would hold much longer.

He didn’t know if he was going to die.

Suddenly a roar bellowed from another being filled the room. Both paused and turned, finding searchers being smashed into the ground by a once again berserk Henry.

“LItTle RaM SEemS tO HaVE CoME tO HIs SenSEs…” Sammy hissed, chuckling as he dug his claws back into Bendy. Before Bendy could raise his fist and throw Sammy off, Sammy had jumped off and circled around onto Bendy’s back.

As quick as the extra weight on his back had come it was gone. Bendy turned around to find Henry had grabbed Sammy and thrown him to the ground holding his body there as Sammy struggled beneath his grasp.

“LeT GO oF Me YoU FoOL!” Sammy shouted as he dug his claws into Henry’s hand. If Henry had felt it he didn’t show any sign of it. Henry only roared once again directly into Sammy’s face and then at the searchers that had begun to circle around them.

“YoU ArE A PrOPheT Of LIes. AnD YoU WiLl  SPreAD ThEm nO MOre.” Henry growled out. Bendy turned away from the two as Henry raised his other fist.

“WHaT Are YOu DoINg. NO. STOP—“ Sammy’s voice cut off as Henry’s fist came down. The remaining searchers quickly vanished from the room. All that was left was the sound of Henry’s ragged breathing. Henry let go of Sammy’s body, walked forwards a few steps, and in a cascade of ink, fell to the ground, once again in human form.

Bendy quickly moved to his side, or well, as quickly as he could, wounds slowing his movements. He checked that Henry was breathing. He wanted to collapse like Henry had, but they needed to move out of the open. Who knows what else they had awoken in the studio, and both of them were in no shape to fight anything else at the moment.

Bendy lifted Henry up the best he could. Determined to make it somewhere safe. He moved slowly, trying not to jostle Henry and to keep his wounds from hurting too much.

He had to keep going.

Eventually he found a room, more than enough secure for them to rest in. He laid Henry down on the floor as gently as he could, and like Henry, in a cascade of ink, returned to being a drawing on the paper.

Tears and holes filled the page, His right arm significantly torn almost all the way off of his body, left most horn gone completely, and his left leg…

Bendy lost consciousness.

* * *

 

Henry jolted awake with a start, body sore from everything that had happened. He blinked at the harsh light of the room. Looking around he was sent into a panic finding Bendy in such a terrible state, he quickly scavenged the room for supplies, finding what he needed to fix the toon up, he set to work, luckily Bendy had found the one free of tears spot on the page making Henry’s job easier. He grabbed another page, drawing a smooth line on it and placed it on the desk, clutching Bendy’s current page carefully, he leaned against the desk leg, waiting for Bendy to wake up.

“I keep failing you Bendy.” Henry whispered. “I won’t let it happen again…”

Henry lost consciousness.

* * *

 

**_Somewhere, deep with in the studio, in the darkness; it grinned._ **


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So last we left off, the human and toon have found a safe spot after quite a battle. Maybe their dreams were a bit better…

The toon woke up to a dark room, a small light flickering above him, the silence was oppressing.

What was this? Where was Henry?

Wait— no he didn’t care where Henry was, that jerk was still on his bad side. He’d left him alone, for an axe of all things.

He stood up, and immediately fell off the desk.

“Owww…” Bendy shook his head, he pushed himself to stand up with a nearby chair. When he finally got upright he realized, he was about the same height as it.

That wasn’t right, was it?

He looked over himself.

“OH MY GOODNESS!” Bendy found he now had a proper three dimensional body. He jumped up and down, did a small dance, and giggled at his new found ability to actually interact with the world.

“Well, this is a surprise!” Bendy smiled widely. “Wait until Henry sees this!” His smile fell. Where was he? Yes he was still mad, but where was Henry, wasn’t he in the same room as him? Did Henry leave him again? He suddenly felt odd, it was as if the bond was there and wasn’t, muted, but not in the same way as it had been the other times.

Bendy shook his head. Why think about that when he has this new body?  It was no use standing in a room where nothing was happening either, so it was time to get moving, Bendy went to the door and opened it.

A hallway stretched out, flickering lights and quiet creaks, there seemed to be some other noise, familiar but he couldn’t place it. He decided to go to the right, hopefully finding Henry and giving him a solid piece of his mind for all the things that he had put up with.

He’d been walking for a while, the hallway seeming to be endless, not like it didn’t feel like that normally, but still, all too long.

It seemed faster when Henry carried him…

He went to shake his head again, but a snap of a wooden board caught his attention. Had that hallway always been there? It didn’t matter. He started down the new path.

It seemed like it was getting darker, there were fewer lights, and there were more noises in the darkness. Bendy rubbed his arm, he sort of wished that Henry was here now, it was getting really… lonely.

Bendy paused.

He hated this. Being alone. He finally wasn’t when Henry had come. Henry had been with him through a lot of things. When he’d first changed forms, when he’d gone berserk for the first time, when he’d had his page torn. It was, nice, to finally have someone to talk to, to be with, to trust.

But Henry had to go and choose an axe.

Suddenly there was a loud moan. Bendy’s head snapped up to find a small group of searchers coming towards him. He could take care of this! He stepped into the pool of ink in front of him.

Nothing happened.

The searchers came closer.

Why wasn’t this working???

This should work!?!

The searchers started to reach out at him.

Bendy ran, back the way he came, but the hallway seemed to stretch out further and further. Where was the first hall he had been in? Deciding to find a place to just hide in he dived for an open door that he spotted up ahead, slamming the door shut behind him and breathing hard.

Opening his eyes again, he found himself surrounded by searchers. He was pulled into the ink.

* * *

Henry woke up in a dark room, a small light flickering above him, he sat upright in the chair. He groaned and yawned, stretching himself out. He blinked and looked around the room.

Wait where was Bendy? Hadn’t he had his page when he fell asleep again? Where was he?

Henry stood up, he had to find Bendy, and talk with him. A deep sigh reverberated through him. If Bendy would even listen to him. Henry didn’t doubt the toon would be angry with him, he’d already been yelled at by Bendy once, but there was plenty more that the toon probably was going to get after him on.

It wouldn’t help him to wait though, not that he was looking forward to the conversation, but that he wasn’t sure if the little devil was trapped anywhere. He left the room. Finding himself in a long dark hallway. He decided to head to the left and began walking.

It felt like he’d been walking forever, with only himself, it was way too quite in the studio, no companion to make anything more interesting. He missed having Bendy with him. He also felt quite nervous, there was no axe with him in the room, and he hadn’t seen anything else he could use as a weapon.

Another sigh left his lips.

“If I hadn’t been so stupid.” Henry was annoyed with himself. He did this to himself. He wouldn’t be surprised if it had turned out that Bendy had left him on his own. He wouldn’t blame him either.

A loud snap of wood caught his attention. Had that hallway always been there? He moved down the hallway. He kept moving, again feeling like an eternity, using the wall as a guide. It seemed like it was only getting darker.

It made him nervous.

A sudden moan caught his attention.

_No not them._

He whipped his head towards the sound, searchers had popped up behind him, without a second thought he ran.

“Little ram where are you?” A chill ran down Henry’s spine.

_Please no, I can’t…_

Henry didn’t turn back, he just kept running, into the darkness. He tried to focus, become an ink monster, not that he wanted to, but it was his only defense. But he couldn’t do anything. He didn’t even feel a twitch, he looked down at his right hand briefly, and found that the pentagram was a deep red instead of black, but nothing changed.

He spotted an open door and dived into the room slamming the door behind him. He breathed heavily.

Opening his eyes again, he found himself surrounded by searchers. He was pulled into the ink.

* * *

Darkness.

It was so dark.

It was all encompassing.

Suffocating.

It was so dark.

Bendy was afraid. He couldn’t transform, he couldn’t do anything but curl up into a ball.

He was so alone.

It was so dark.

There was a bang.

Cracks of light came into the room.

Another bang.

More cracks.

Bendy backed up.

Another bang.

This time a hole appeared.

A large black hand came down. Bendy backed away from it, chest moving up and down with labored breathing, tears springing to his eyes.

He was so scared.

The hand slowed down slightly, seeming to waiver, before gently opening up, palm upwards. It seemed like whatever it was wanted him to climb on.

Bendy took a hesitant step forwards. The hand remained where it was. He carefully stepped onto the palm and once situated, the hand slowly moved upwards, towards the light. The toon closed his eyes.

The hand stopped moving.

A chuckle seemed to echo throughout the space and in his head.

_You can open your eyes now._

“Wha- What?” Bendy took a shaky breath.

_It’s alright, I promise I won’t hurt you._

It almost sounded like Henry.

Bendy slowly cracked open his eyes and gasped, falling backwards onto his rear. It looked like Henry, but his hair seemed to extend into an even larger spike than his berserk form. Both arms equal in size, and both legs and arms equally coated in ink.

Henry looked terrifying to be perfectly honest.

_I take it you don’t really like the look?_  Henry’s voice seemed to reverberate around the space again, his mouth not moving, not that Bendy really wanted Henry to open it, large dagger like teeth coming upwards and downwards from his mouth.

Bendy was at a bit of a loss for words. There were so many things he wanted to say at the moment, but nothing would come out.

_It’s alright take your time._  Henry gently said, voice seeming to boom but at the same time was quiet.

Bendy suddenly snapped to standing.

“YOU LEFT ME!” Bendy shouted. “You left me all alone, for an axe of all things, I can’t believe you!” Bendy began to pace on Henry’s palm. “You didn’t even say anything, or take me with you, and look what happened! Sammy-“

Henry winced and growled slightly at the mention of the mad band director. Bendy immediately silenced.

_Sorry… That was, an unpleasant experience to say the least, especially losing myself like that… I understand your anger though. I’ve been kicking myself for a while…_

“What are you exactly anyway… You say you are Henry, but you don’t look like any of the forms Henry has… And you know about things we have gone through…” Bendy suddenly questioned curiously.

_I am what Henry has the power to become, however, I can only form once Henry has learned to control his forms and the bond between us has been healed… In fact, you have a form like this as well._

“What if it never is… Or I don’t want it to be? Besides, it’s not like I have control either…”

_It will take time._  Henry tilted his head with a wince, as if he was listening into something.  _It seems that he isn’t that happy either…_

“Who isn’t?”

_You._

“Wha-“

_Oh it seems you are going to wake up soon, and I have yet to say the most important thing. Listen, I know I have hurt you, I know that you are still angry and that the hurt won’t go away just yet. But you have to accept what you’ve done and your failings and move past them._

Bendy winced recalling what he had done to Henry when he went berserk.

_And you have to understand ‘me’, what I have been through, what I am seeing from you. Otherwise you can forget about getting out of this place._

“Wait what do you mean?”

_It will be clear in time, please, don’t be too hard on me…_

* * *

Darkness.

It was so dark.

It was all encompassing.

Suffocating.

It was so dark.

Henry felt trapped, there wasn’t a way out, just like when Sammy had controlled him. Had it happened again? Was he trapped.

He was alone.

Suddenly a loud roar filled the room. The darkness seemed to shrink back, suddenly he felt himself be pulled upwards by a large hand. Breaching the surface of the ink Henry gasped for air.

Another fist came down, smashing a searcher that was reaching up for him, it seemed larger than anything he’d seen before, almost twice his height.

Another roar filled the room.

Henry shut his eyes.

_So you think you can just close your eyes?_

“Bendy?” Henry was placed on the ground. Looking upwards he found a terrifying sight. He took a step back.

It looked like Bendy, but it followed a lot of the berserk forms shapes. Horns sharp, teeth elongated coming out of a deep frown.

_I am very unhappy with you just so you know._

“Oh geez…”

_You left me alone, multiple times. And the last for an axe of all things! You think that you are the only one dealing with these problems? You aren’t the only one with another form that causes them to have problems, you aren’t the only one who is lost in this studio. You think that your problems are the only ones that matter._  Bendy’s voice seemed to reverberate around the room and through Henry. Mouth not moving in the slightest.

“I’m sorry.” Henry sighed, knowing that the toon now turned, well, demon for lack of a better word, was not impressed with him.

_Look, there is a lot to get used to. But you have to listen._ Bendy sighed out.

“I know, I need to be better… But what exactly are you?” Henry looked up in question.

_I’m Bendy’s true form. What can be achieved once he has control over his form and the bond has been healed. You actually have one too._  Bendy responded.

The demon tilted his head as if listening to something.

_And it seems he’s sorry too…_

Bendy paused.

_It seems we haven’t much time left here. So I will get right to the point._   _you have to accept what you’ve done and your failings and move past them. And you have to understand ‘me’, what I have been through, what I am seeing from you. Otherwise you can forget about getting out of this place._

* * *

Henry woke up, eyes blinking at the faint amount of light, he noticed that Bendy also was waking up, he grabbed the new page and Bendy slowly walked over to it before he sat on his new line.

“You and I need to have a serious talk.” Bendy stated, not looking Henry in the eyes.

Henry opened his mouth. But nothing came out.

His throat was blocked by the ink.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With chapter 3 now released there are so many more possibilities! But I wrote this before the release of the chapter heh. I was a bit excited last night.
> 
> So there are NOT any spoilers in this chapter I promise. 
> 
> Last we left off the two had just woken up from some nightmares… Maybe they will talk things out.

Nothing.

Not a single sound passed his lips. It was as if the ink decided to only coat his throat.

Thick. Black. Viscous. Vile. Unmoving.

He attempted to clear the blockage but found that not even that made a sound.

Not that his struggle was made apparent to Bendy. Henry had placed the page on the desk and had moved himself to sit on the chair across from it. A good few feet of space between the two.

“You left me.” Bendy’s voice seemed to fill the room.

“You left me alone. In that room. For an axe of all things!” Bendy jumped up from his seated position. “You and I are partners in this right? I said I’d help you get out of here and you said you’d do the same. All it’s been is about you though. You just keep rushing ahead and leaving me behind.” Bendy paced on his line a bit before halting facing away from Henry.

“Do you have any idea how I feel?” Bendy’s voice sounded like it was close to cracking. There was a long pause.

Henry sat there, he wanted to say it all, how he knew what he had done was wrong. He wanted to comfort Bendy. Promise over and over how he wouldn’t do any of that again.

But he couldn’t.

He knew those promises would sound empty. Especially after all that had happened since he’d awoken in his new form. Especially what had happened with Sammy. Henry’s head suddenly throbbed in a spike of pain, leaving as soon as it came.

The palm of his right hand began to itch, he scratched at it absentmindedly, stewing in his own emotions. He was upset with himself, acting so stupid in such a dangerous situation, not thinking about anything but himself. It was all this damned things fault.

He looked down to his palm and gasped. No sound alerting Bendy to the new trouble Henry now faced. Bendy still silent. Henry beginning to panic, heavy and rapid breaths through the ink that somehow did not impact his breathing.

The pentagram on his palm had changed.

A small, black crescent moon shape now nestled into the circle of the pentagram. Everything else has remained the same, the same basic pentagram like the one he’d passed out on, the square nestled below the curved line connecting two of the star’s points, but this addition was horrifying for him.

“So you aren’t going to say anything?” Bendy’s icy voice pulled him back to the current situation. He tried to speak again, desperate to tell Bendy that it wasn’t the truth, that he did care, that he would try harder.

Not a single sound.

Bendy’s body shook. Little lines appearing on the page showing the movement. His fists clenched tightly. Shoulders hunched over.

Ink began to seep from the page, spilling onto the desk then dripping down to the floor.

Quicker than Henry could process, Bendy had transformed and grasped Henry in his enlarged hand, Henry’s eyes widened in horror. Bendy roared at him.

“You think that you’re the only one dealing with this!?” Henry felt a wave of anger roll through him, not his own, but it made him frown in response. He felt the ink start to slowly seep from the pentagram. He felt himself be released from the grasp.

“You don’t seem to get any of this! That we need to work together! I only wanted to help you but you keep pushing me away!” Bendy shouted at him, voice deeper from the form change.

Henry’s anger rose. Didn’t Bendy see that he was unable to respond? Didn’t Bendy realize that he knew he’d failed? Didn’t Bendy see how much stranger it was for him?

Bendy growled. How dare Henry not say anything to him. Did he think he was better? Did he not realize how much Bendy was hurting as well? Didn’t he see what this was doing to them? Bendy’s anger only grew when Henry transformed in front of him.

Henry barely felt the ink cover his body. He was too angry to notice it climb and claim its spot again. He wanted to shout and yell but no sound passed his lips. He turned to move away, get to a corner of the room away from Bendy for a moment, something whacked the back of his head.

He turned back finding a balled up paper rolling away slightly. He looked up and clenched his teeth, eyebrow turning downwards as he glared at the demon. Bendy only glared right back.

“Answer me old man.” Bendy growled out. Anger much more visible now as he seemed to tense up. Waiting for something.

Henry snapped, he punched one of the support beams in the room, a resounding crack shot through the room as the beam was damaged.

“So you’re angry and going to take it out on something? Well,” Bendy’s eye seemed to flash, “I need to get my anger out too, and wood isn’t going to cut it. I’ll get this through your thick skull one way or another!” With a roar Bendy launched himself at Henry.

Henry raised an arm to blocked his attack but found himself on the floor with the demon hovering over him. Bendy snarled, fist coming down, Henry raised his arm up and pushed Bendy away from him. Henry got up to move away, only making it a foot before falling over nearly face planting into the floor before he had manage to catch himself. His balance still off in this form he suddenly realized. It seems that he had been on a sort of auto pilot when he had been running around the studio in this form before, no control of the form gained with the experiences.

“What tripping over your own two feet?” Bendy mocked. Bendy’s hand flipped him onto his back and pinned him to the ground. “Still not going to say anything?”

Henry silently growled before trying to speak once again, ready to give Bendy an earful of his own. “—gh!” The last part of his words finally cutting through the ink. Bendy’s grip had yet to ease up. 

“—t’s enough!” Henry tried again, feeling the Ink starting to dissipate.

“Oh no. You don’t just get to call it quits now. You stubborn old man. You still need to explain yourself.” Bendy growled.

“—n’t talk!” Henry tried again desperately. Anger now replaced as a mere twinge of annoyance, he realized that his anger had not been all his own, trying to calm down so he could actually speak with the toon. Bendy’s eye widened slightly but he did not remove his hand.

“I couldn’t talk!” Henry shouted. Finally the ink had cleared. “I couldn’t talk.” He said again much quieter. The only noises in the room now were the heavy pants of breath from the two and a slow steady drip of ink.

“Bendy.” Henry tried to reach up to place a hand on Bendy’s shoulder only to have Bendy pull away from him. Released from Bendy’s grip as he moved away from Henry. Henry slowly sat up.

“What do you mean..” Bendy hissed somewhat unsure of what had transpired. Both suddenly paused, silence in the room nudging their memories.

_You have to accept what you’ve done and your failings and move past them. And you have to understand ‘me’, what I have been through, what I am seeing from you. Otherwise you can forget about getting out of this place._

Both suddenly seemed to suddenly recall their nightmares they had awoken from. The words the opposing member said ringing through their head clearly. There was a long pause between the two as they thought about what to say next.

“Bendy.” Henry finally broke the silence. “I’m- I’m sorry. I’ve been a horrible partner and a horrible friend. I’m sorry I keep leaving you behind. I’m sorry I let myself get in the way of us getting out of here. I’m sorry I’ve been such a- a stubborn idiot.” The words now tumbling out of Henry’s mouth as he finally got to answer Bendy. Bendy remained silent.

“I know that it’s going to be hard to trust me. For a long time. I’m sorry I’ve hurt that trust and you.” Henry sighed and looked down. “I finally see, how while it’s a bit different, we are both dealing with exactly the same things. I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner. I’m sorry I didn’t check in with you. I don’t know if you’ll ever forgive me for the pain I’ve caused. I don’t know if I can forgive myself…”

“…It’s not that I don’t trust you Henry…” Bendy started, voice very quiet and timid. “I just- you kept leaving me behind and I just want to help you. I- I don’t know any more than you do about all of this… and it’s safer to be together right? I just want to help…”

Henry stood up shakily trying to walk over to Bendy, ending up falling forwards, Bendy catching him just in time.

“Sorry…” Henry trailed off.

“Do- Can you not balance?” Bendy asked.

“…No…” Henry admitted looking a bit away from the demon still holding him. Suddenly Henry felt himself be pulled in closer to Bendy and wrapped into a tight hug.

“I’m- I’m so sorry Henry. I’m sorry that whatever Joey did is effecting you. I’m so sorry…” Henry felt a large tear fall onto his shoulder. “Please. Please let me help you. I know we can work this out together.” Bendy was shaking slightly. Henry wrapped his arms around the toon and held on tightly as well.

“Yes. We will figure this out. Somehow…” Henry trailed off. They stood holding each other for quite some time before Bendy  released his hold, making sure Henry stayed balanced with an arm out for support.

“But for now I think we should just rest.” Henry admitted. “I promise I won’t leave.” Bendy looked him over before suddenly picking him up and pulling the two of them over towards a wall, leaning his back against it while still holding Henry.

“Do you… Can we just rest like this? I-“

“Yes.” Henry leaned back against the toon who had his arms draped over Henry’s body. Henry gave a tired smile back to Bendy. “Let’s just, rest.”

The two fell asleep, a sense of calm waved over the two, as well as a faint, but growing happiness for finally being able to get to the heart of the issue. While they both knew it was still likely a long ways to getting out of the studio, they were both very glad they had each other.

It was only going to get harder from here.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s been a little while since I updated this huh? So without further ado here’s chapter 11! This one was a lot of fun to write!

Henry woke up in Bendy’s arms. The quiet peacefulness of the room almost lulling him back to sleep before the demon holding him started to shift as well. Henry quietly chuckled to himself as Bendy’s hands moved to rub at his face, allowing Henry to sit up straighter, back cracking in some protest. 

“Morning.” Bendy yawned out.

“Morning.” Henry smiled gently back to the toon. “I think you should probably go back to your page…” Henry trailed off, worried that the argument from last night would suddenly come back. 

“Mmm.” Bendy simply hummed and with a splash of ink was back to being just the small toon on the page again. Henry released his breath which he didn’t know he was holding. There was a brief moment before the toon piped up. 

“So I guess we should get moving?” He asked Henry curiously. 

“Yes that’s probably a good idea.” Henry said as he stood up, more parts of his body cracking. He stretched out, spine snapping back into place. After all that he finally started moving towards the door. 

“OH! Wait Henry! You need to practice walking in your ink form right?” Bendy called out before Henry had even made it halfway across the room. Henry sighed slightly. “Oh um I mean… Only if you want to.” The toon had picked up on the slightly disappointed feeling coming from Henry.

“Oh no it’s not that I don’t want to. Believe me I’d rather be able to keep my feet on the ground underneath me. But I don’t think this is exactly the safest room to be in…” Henry trailed off. It wasn’t like he could offer an alternative though. Almost no where in the studio seemed to be safe. Every room that they hid in was only as safe as the door that barred it’s entry, and most of the doors, while sturdy, were not sturdy enough for Henry’s liking. 

“…I see what you mean… But I don’t think there is a room that is safe enough…” Bendy trailed off. Henry didn’t like the feeling of fear and disappointment coming to him in small waves.   


Henry internally sighed, the bond they shared at first had been slowly growing since the two of them had met each other, now seemed to have somewhat reversed. Admittedly they hadn’t been with each other for too long, but there was something about how the bond felt before the pentagram had appeared on his hand than how it felt now. Henry was struck with the sudden realization that the bond was sending them emotions yes, but before where it sent all sorts of emotions, now it only sent the negative ones to each of them. Their argument before had been based on both of them escalating from each other’s anger, not just their own. Henry looked down at the toon who was waiting on him to continue on in their journey through the studio.

“Alright… How about some quick ‘training’ and then we move on.” Henry conceded. 

“Alright!” 

“This is not going to be much fun.” Henry grumbled as he placed Bendy’s page on the desk and back a little bit away from the toon. Making sure that a wide enough area was cleared of random debris before even attempting to transform. “Okay… Ummm honestly I don’t even know how to do this…” Henry sheepishly admitted to the toon. He’d only figured out how to turn back to human and even then it was a difficult and somewhat shaky process. 

“Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to learn how?” Bendy grinned at him. “It seems like you know how to de-transform though? So what do you do there?” Bendy asked, sitting down on his line and swinging his feet. 

“It required a lot of focus, or exhaustion…” Henry trailed off for a moment remembering all that had happened before shaking himself off of those thoughts. He didn’t need that right now. “A lot of focus really.” He corrected. 

“Hmm… Maybe transforming requires the same thing then?” Bendy suggested.

“I’d say that but I remember as soon as I lost focus I started transforming back… But also it was the first time I attempted to do that. But I guess it won’t hurt to try. Alright let’s give it a shot.” Henry stood with his feet somewhat apart, making sure his breathing was even and calm, focusing on what he wanted to do. It took a long moment, but he felt a small twinge on his right palm. Another long moment passed, but nothing else happened. “Dammit.” Henry muttered. “I felt something. For a moment but then nothing.” He ran a hand through his hair. 

“Give it another try Henry, I know you can do it!” Bendy tried to cheer him up. Henry gave a small smirk to the little toon and tried to center himself again. Again there was a twinge on his palm and another long moment passed, but he stayed where he was, focusing on making the feeling come back, another twinge at his palm almost pulling his focus away. Slowly ink began to seep from the pentagram on his pal. He felt it starting to form in small patches on his body.

“Your doing it Henry!” The little toon cheered. As soon as he shouted though, Henry lost focus and all the ink disappeared. “Oops.” Came Bendy’s sheepish apology. 

“It’s alright Bendy.” Henry sighed. 

“Give it one more shot?” Bendy asked. 

“I don’t know we’ve spent a lot of time on this.” Henry replied “What makes it possible for you?” Henry suddenly asked. 

“Oh me?” Bendy thought for a moment. “Well, a lot of the time it’s because I’m thinking about protecting you or something. The ink is necessary, I definitely can’t do it without it, but yeah there’s this like pull when I think about protecting you…” Bendy trailed off, looking away from Henry, a small blush forming on his cheeks. 

Henry gave a gentle smile towards Bendy. Not saying anything he closed his eyes and focused on how he felt about Bendy. His partner. Who he could rely on. Who he’d protect. No matter what. Henry opened his eye. 

“You did it Henry!” Bendy was standing up on his line again. Jumping 

“I guess I did?” Was that the secret? The bond they shared? Henry wasn’t sure, but he did feel like this was the right way to do it. “Alright now the next step, and well, literal step.” Henry joked. Bendy let out a small giggle but waited patiently on his line. Henry tried slowly stepping forwards, pulling his ink covered foot up from the ground. 

Henry soon found himself staring at the ceiling.

“Henry, Henry are you alright?” Bendy asked between a fit of giggles. Henry took a moment to sit up fully before answering the little demon. 

“Yes I’m fine. But this is exactly what happened last time.” He huffed out sitting up. 

“It’s because you’re lifting your foot up too much.” 

“What?” Henry looked up at Bendy’s page sitting on the desk. 

“Yeah you are lifting your feet too much. You need to not lift it as high, the ink will meet you, don’t worry, and also you aren’t letting your upper body adjust to how much ink is on it, since your right arm is bigger you need to adjust for that.” Bendy responded giving a full rundown of the body mechanics that Henry had to deal with. 

“Huh…” Henry stood back up. 

“Try taking a small step again Henry. You’ve got this.” Bendy gently said. 

“Alright I’ll give it a shot.” Once standing he took a slow careful step, this time keeping his foot lower to the ground. He noticed how some amount of ink stretched below his foot, keeping him upright. He also found that he was leaning too much on his right side, adjusting himself so that he stood straighter, even though he was still leaning forwards slightly. 

“There you go! Try walking a bit more!” Bendy pushed him onwards from the sidelines. 

At first more small, slow, careful steps were attempted, but soon Henry was moving around the room just fine. Easily moving around and walking, a few times he almost lost balance but was able to catch himself. 

“Wow. I can finally walk. Jeez that took forever to get down.” Henry sighed in relief once he returned to Bendy. 

“I knew you could do it!” Bendy smiled widely. The biggest smile Henry had seen in a while. 

“It’s because I had you to cheer me on buddy.” Henry smiled at him. He closed his eye briefly and focused on getting the ink to recede and this time quickly returned back to being completely human. On opening his eyes he found Bendy blushing again. “Thank you Bendy.” Henry said earnestly. 

“No problem Henry!” Bendy chuckled rubbing the back of his head.

“Alright, ready to move on?” Henry asked the toon.

“Yeah let’s get a move on!” Bendy smiled up at him. 

That’s when they felt it. Both of them felt the happiness that each other was feeling in that moment. Both looked at each other with wide eyes for a moment, before smiles widening again. They could do this. As long as they had each other. And they both wouldn’t trade that for anything. 

Henry opened the door, stepping out into the hallway carefully and looking around, there wasn’t any activity in the hall. They needed to figure out how to get out, but hadn’t they explored most of the studio at this point? 

Suddenly a flash of a memory came to his mind. He felt like he was much taller and larger, in a long hallway area, there was a pool of ink in front of a door, but still low enough to access it, a gate started to open… 

“Henry are you alright?” Bendy looked up at him in question. 

“I just… I remembered something from being controlled by Sammy. I think I know a way out… But it’s back there… We’ll have to avoid him if he’s still out there.” Henry said, concerned with having to go through that area again. 

“Oh… You uh… Don’t have to worry about Sammy. He uh… Was taken care of…” Bendy was very nervous in how he spoke. 

“…I’m sorry I let myself go like that back there… But what happened? I can’t seem to recall.” Henry looked at the toon confused as he started walking again. 

“It wasn’t your fault, and I’m sorry I blamed you too back there. But um… Sammy is dead Henry.” Bendy looked down. Henry could sense a mix of emotions but didn’t press further. He wasn’t sure how he felt about knowing that one of his coworkers was dead, even if he had mind controlled him… Henry shook his head trying to focus back on where he was going. 

Eventually they finally found themselves back in the room the battle had gone down in. There wasn’t a trace of ink in the room. Nothing to denote a fight. Henry was still wary though. There was a sense of fear coming from Bendy, as well as confusion. From what Henry didn’t know but he was still going to make sure that they didn’t have to fight.

The gate that he’d come into the room from was still wide open. He moved into the hall, carefully weaving through the scattered debris on the ground. 

“Henry this hall is so tight…” Bendy whispered. 

“I know, but we are almost there.” He whispered back. As they moved down the hall Henry noted another hallway to the left, broken barrels and boards strewn on the ground from something breaking them all. It had probably been him as that monster from Sammy’s control. Finally he got to the huge pool of ink, door on the other side tauntingly close. Another wave of fear from Bendy. “It’s alright Bendy we’re almost there. We’ll check this door and see if we can even open it, then try heading to the left and see if there’s anything down that way.” Henry tried to comfort him. 

“I know. Just, just be careful okay?” Bendy looked up at Henry. Henry nodded sharply and then entered the ink, slowly wading towards the door. 

It was so quiet. 

Only the rippling of the ink was heard.

Slow drips of ink coming down from the ceiling and meeting the pool below. 

As Henry approached the door, a strange mechanical noise which slowly got louder filled his ears. Just as he reached for the handle to try it, he froze. There was someone whistling loudly on the other side of the door. A theme from the show. And he could feel from both Bendy’s fear, and the strange tugging at his palm, that he definitely didn’t want to meet whatever was on the other side. 

Henry carefully waded back out of the ink and set a course down through the left hall. Both of them stayed silent. Their fears and worries felt by each other so they were fine with keeping it to themselves for now. 

Eventually they found an open door. Henry looked down to the toon who looked back up and nodded. This is what they were looking for, a new path, a way, which Henry hoped was a way out. Passing through the door frame, and entering the room both jumped at the door suddenly slamming shut. Henry and Bendy both clutching their chests to try and get their hearts to stop hammering. 

“Holy shit that scared the living daylights out of me.” Henry breathed hard.

“Yeah and it doesn’t look like that door is moving any time soon.” Bendy responded breathing out heavily as well. Both took a moment to calm down and take a look around. It seemed that they were now in a small service corridor. A shelf filled with Bendy plushies to the side of them and a few cans of bacon soup as well. 

“Hmmm… None of this looks familiar…” Henry said at a loss as to where in the studio they were. Henry took a few steps forward before freezing. A can of bacon soup rolling out from behind the corner. 

“Hello? Who’s there… I know you’re in here. Show yourself.” Henry called out, putting on a brave front for Bendy. There wasn’t a response except for some rather nonchalant footsteps before the owner revealed themselves. 

“Boris?” Bendy and Henry asked in time.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh hai... It's been a while huh... Yeah... *flings chapter and runs*

“The hand…”

“…he’s here…”

“Free us…”

“Set us free…”

* * *

Henry woke up slowly. Blinking at the faint light in the room. His back protesting as he sat up from the cot. His head was pounding. The steady ticking of the clock on the opposite side of the room was beginning to grate at his nerves. It had been a long time since he’d had a decent amount of rest, but his body was extremely stiff, it seemed the events of the studio were beginning to catch up to him.

He slowly rolled his legs over the edge of the cot and stood up, stretching out his back and shoulders. He gently pushed open the room’s door and went into the restroom. He splashed the clean cold water at his face before looking up into the mirror.

He sighed. The last… Hours? Days? However much time had passed since he’d come into this hell hole had taken their toll. His face was a lot thinner than when he had come in, skin taking on a somewhat sickly pallor disposition, bags under his eyes becoming more pronounced nearly taking on a purple bruised look, even his hair had a greasy sheen to it.

A shower…

His stomach rumbled loudly pulling him out of his thoughts. His reflection mimicked his smirk. First some food, then figuring out how to wrangle the sink into a makeshift shower. Heading out of the restroom he finally joined his companions in the main living room and kitchen area of the safe house. Boris’s ears perked up upon hearing Henry’s footsteps.

“And then we ran- Henry good morning! Or uh afternoon or something?” Bendy greeted cheerfully, paper resting against a soup can so that he could speak to Boris. Henry smiled at the toon’s antics.

“Good morning Bendy, Boris.” He greeted back. He was finally hit with the smell of hot bacon soup, while better than downing it while it was cold, it still was something he’d rather not eat more of. Yet it seemed to be the only edible thing left in the studio. His stomach growled again.

“Well don’t just stand there Henry! Get some soup!” Bendy chided. Boris stifled a silent giggle behind his hand.

“Alright, alright!” Henry fought to not laugh but his voice betrayed him.

“Seriously we need to take better care of you!” Bendy was acting like a mother hen. This sent Henry over the edge releasing the bubble of laughter he’d tried to keep down. He felt the Bendy’s pride for making him laugh, not quite muting the worry, but he knew it wasn’t as serious now that they were in a safe location.

It had been quite a shock seeing Boris at first, both Bendy and Henry had been stunned into silence, not knowing if the wolf was friend or foe initially. But after an awkward moment of bracing for a fight Boris finally spoke breaking the tension and led them to the safe house.

Boris didn’t speak much at all, mostly nodding or using gestures, most likely due to the original cartoon being silent at first but Henry was not sure of it. Whatever the reasoning Henry was just glad that they had another ally in this situation.

Settling down with a bowl of soup across from Boris he listened to Bendy continue to chatter, relaying all of their adventure so far. It was such a peaceful moment, just relaxing, not worrying about searchers or anything else, nothing could take it away.

“…Henry?” Bendy pulled him out of his thoughts, having finished his soup a while ago and had been staring at the wall thinking about the studio and what had happened, not noticing the lull in conversation immediately.

“Yeah?”

“How are you doing? You uh… Had quite the uh…” Bendy’s nerves were a jumbled mess and it all was sending back to Henry.

“It’s alright, what is it? You can ask anything Bendy.” Henry tried to reassure the toon demon.

“It’s just… How much do you remember from uh… Sammy?” The toon winced at saying the music director’s name. Boris’s eyebrow raised at the question. There was a lot of apprehension from the demon.

“I…” Henry paused. He could recall Sammy having him tied up on the pole but beyond that… “I’ll admit… I only recall being tied to the post and him talking to me for a while… After that I woke up without being able to speak…” He stopped and frowned. “Did something happen?”

“Oh… Yeah… Ummm… Sammy… Sammy’s dead.” The toon said quietly.

“What?”

“Sammy’s dead. You umm… You lost control… Cause Sammy had control of you and then… You kinda gained it back… But I dunno… It all happened so fast and there were a lot of searchers and stuff…” Bendy was breathing a bit hard. Henry sat in silence. “After you- You smashed him- You passed out and I took you to that room we were in…” The demon trailed off.

A long moment passed before Henry spoke again.

“I- I wouldn’t- But-“ He drew shuddering breath. “I- If I had lost control… Sammy was also fairly far gone though… But still… Taking another’s life… Even if it was-“ He stopped himself from continuing, staring at the pentagram tattooed on his palm.

“Henry… There’s nothing we can do, but I didn’t want you to not know… I’m sorry…” The demon said meekly.

“…It’s alright Bendy… I just… I am going to need some time to… If you’ll excuse me…” Henry lifted himself off of the chair and went to the restroom, gently closing the door behind himself.

“Henry…” Bendy watched the man leave, feeling somewhat guilty for bringing up Sammy like that. But he also needed to make sure that Henry knew what had happened. It wouldn’t have been fair to keep that from him.

Henry splashed the cold water on his face. Trying to block the creeping feeling of nausea climbing his throat. He swallowed hard.

He’d killed Sammy.

Not that Sammy was really living, being cursed by the ink like he himself was.

But still, there was the hope of saving those in the studio. Even if he hadn’t known they were there before Sammy revealed himself. Henry ran a hand through his hair.

It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t right.

The studio had taken so much, not just from him, but from all of the employees.

There wasn’t anything that he could do about it.

Henry breathed out a sigh. He had killed Sammy. A fact he would have to live with for the rest of his life. But there was no use dwelling with it now. Now he needed to regain his strength. Now he needed to work on getting out of the studio. Now he needed to reconnect with Bendy for the bond’s sake and for the sake of getting himself and the toons, because of course Boris was coming with them, out of the nightmare that the studio had become.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been quite a while huh? 
> 
> I didn’t think I’d get this done as fast as I did after I got my butt writing again lol
> 
> We still have a long way to go from here though ;)

It had been at least two or three days since being told of Sammy’s demise, Henry wasn’t quite sure, time being difficult to tell in the studio. And while there was a clock in the room that Boris had set up a cot in for Henry, it was impossible to tell if it was right. Henry had even tried to see if his watch would enlighten him as to what time it was only to find the device to have been rendered useless by the ink at some point in their journey. He’d been a bit sad at that, the watch had been a gift from his father, but there wasn’t much he could do for it at this point. Hopefully once they escaped from the studio Henry would be able to drain the ink out of it and take it to a repair store.

Henry stretched in his chair, carefully keeping his cards from being visible to the wolf playing against him. Bendy was watching from the sidelines, unable to hold card from his paper, but still cheering on both the man and wolf equally. Boris watched him curiously for a moment before speaking.

“Got any jack’s?”

“Go fish.” Henry replied. Boris took a card off the table and then placed two fours down.

“Got any queens?” Henry asked, he was losing by about 3 pairs.

“Yup.” The queen of hearts was passed over to Henry. Henry smirked to himself placing the queens down.

Eventually Boris won the game. They moved on to play Gin Rummy for two rounds, the man and wolf winning one each and then playing a game of poker, Henry taking the win for that one.

“Alright I think that’s enough for the evening I think.” Henry stood up, spine cracking into place. “I’ll get some soup going.” Henry put the pot on the stove top, Boris putting the cards away and scratching Henry’s last win onto the score count. Henry chuckled to himself spotting that the two of them were tied with each other. Fifty games each.

Henry had to admit to himself though, he was getting antsy down here. Yes they were safe here but they needed to move on if they were going to leave the studio. Henry figured after tonight they would be leaving the safe house. Henry noticed out of the corner of his eye Boris and Bendy were whispering something he couldn’t quite catch.

With bellies full and eyes drooping, Henry bid Boris and Bendy a good night, figuring he would tell him the plan in the morning.

* * *

 

Henry woke the next morning, or afternoon, at least it had been about seven hours from what he could tell from the clock ticking on the wall. He stretched as he stood from the cot and made his way out to the bathroom to splash some water on his face. While the splash of water was not equivalent to a cup of coffee, he was now more awake. Stepping into the kitchen he noticed Boris and Bendy were talking again in low voices.

“Morning you two.”

“Oh hey Henry!” Bendy greeted him, but something felt slightly off.

“I was thinking-“ Henry started only to find himself quickly cut off by the demon.

“Wanna play some more go fish? Boris here was saying he thinks he’s gonna beat ya.” Bendy’s smile was a little too wide.

“Actually Bendy, I think it’s time we move on.” Henry sighed, he had been a little worried about Bendy’s reaction and now he knew something was up.

“But we are safe here!” Bendy exclaimed.

“Bendy, we have to keep moving on. We might be found out here if we stay too long.” Henry tried to reason with the little demon. Bendy frowned heavily, turning away from the old man. Henry decided to take matters into his own hands, walking to the door and attempting to open it, finding the lever to open the door gone. “Alright you two. This isn’t funny.”

“Henry why do you want to leave so bad! It’s dangerous out there! We’re safe!” Bendy tried again, beginning to feel Henry’s frustration building through the bond.

“Bendy. If we don’t leave, we may never escape from this place. There is only so much soup down here,  and I can’t live off that forever. Come on. Boris you know we have to try. And you are coming with us. Please, you two know it’s the only path we have.” Henry breathed out heavily, trying to keep his temper in check.

“…It’s in the bedroom…” Boris finally spoke up.

“Boris!” Bendy cried out, betrayed by the wolf.

“Bendy, he’s right.” Boris said simply. The little demon deflated, sitting down on the line and curling his knees to his chest. Henry turned and went to get the lever out from the other room.

“I know… but it’s still not safe.” Bendy said, defeat evident in his voice. Henry quickly returned with the device.

“I know, but we can do this. Besides, if we get out of here, and fix you up, you can get in on playing against us next time.” Henry smiled gently.

“Henry…” Bendy started. “…Alright let’s go.” Bendy stood up, posing in a somewhat confident stance.

Henry and Boris shared a nod before Henry passed the lever to Boris and picked up Bendy’s page. Boris placed the lever into the slot and open the door, a fresh waft of ink filling Henry’s nostrils.

“Ready?” Boris turned to him.

“As I’ll ever be.” Henry gave the wolf a wry grin and stepped out into the hallway.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s finally time to leave the safe house!~
> 
> Cause it’s been since April... 
> 
> There are NO chapter 5 spoilers I promise. We are a very very long time from that... Especially if I go on hiatus like I did previously for so long whoops...

The first thing Henry noticed upon leaving the safe house was the sheer number of cobwebs coating the set of vending machines in front of them.

“Geez does no one clean around here?” Bendy commented trying for a joke.

“It’s not exactly high priority.” Boris said, not taking notice of Bendy trying to lighten the mood, looking around to make sure the coast was clear.

“Yeah I guess not...” Bendy trailed off.

Henry was admittedly nervous, being back out in the studio, hearing the quiet dripping of ink and the creaks and groans of the floor under his feet made his heart beat faster. But they had to keep going if they ever wanted to get out of this nightmare. They had to face whatever was thrown at them next. No matter how much easier it would be to just stay in the safe house and hide.

“Care to take the lead Boris?” Henry asked, he had noticed that much of the studio had begun to feel less familiar when Boris had lead them to the safe house and the feeling was only growing. Boris gave a quick nod taking the front of the pack causing Henry to spot the Little Miracle Station sitting in the corner at the end of the hall. “Boris, what is that?” There had never been anything like that when Henry had worked there.

“A Little Miracle Station. If you feel like you’re in danger, or we get separated, run to one of these, close the door, and keep your breathing quiet.” The wolf practically growled out. Henry could feel Bendy’s worry increase, and his own as well, but he had to swallow his own nerves, there was no reason to turn back now.

“Alright will do.” Henry confirmed, ready to move on. Boris nodded and moved forwards again.

“It’s kinda dark up ahead… Stick close okay? Mind holdin’ the light?” Boris passed Henry the flashlight on the desk before the pitch black hallway they were standing in front of.

“Uh… It’s uh… real dark in there ain’t it?” Bendy was really nervous about entering the hall.

“It is but we need to keep moving forwards.” Henry took the light, stepping forwards determined. Boris gives him a grin and walks forwards into the darkness after Henry turned on the light.

As they walk forwards in the hallway the churning of mechanical parts and ink fills their ears. Bendy eventually relaxes once inside the hallway and not having anything immediately dangerous come at them.

“See? Not so-“ Henry is cut off as something bangs about in the vents above them. The three of them hold their breath for a long moment after. Finally releasing his breath Henry tried to calm his racing heart. “I bet it was just a board falling. Nothing to worry about.” Boris shot him a nervous smile at his attempt to brush off the possible danger. Bendy didn’t take his attempt as well as Boris however.

“Henry…” Bendy’s nerves were obvious. The three made their way to the end of the hallway a lot quicker after that. However their progress was halted as a large metal door sealed their way forwards.

“Any ideas?” Henry asked. Boris stood near a vent, hand raised out for the flashlight. “…You sure?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll find my way back to ya.” Boris gave him a bit of a cocky grin.

“I trust you will.” Henry passed the flashlight over. Boris nods and climbs into the vent, traveling further and forth away. The darkness causing Henry to lean a little closer to the door. Shortly after the floor shook as the door finally opened. They waited for a while, but Boris didn’t come back through the vent he left from. “I’m sure we’ll catch up with him…” Henry couldn’t deny his worry for the lanky wolf.

“Just- We should wait for a few more minutes. I’m sure-“ Bendy tried.

“We’re exposed… We need to keep moving. Sorry bud.” Henry sighed. “I’m sure it’s just that he can’t get back the way he went. We’ll see him again. I’m sure of it.”

“I- Okay…” Bendy seemed to finally accept that as an answer.

The two started moving forward again. Walking towards the end of a short hallway where a large Bendy decal was pasted on the wall. As they walked around the corner it opened to a large area causing both the toon and man to stare in awe. In front of them was what looked to be a toy shop, only confirmed by the sign “Heavenly Toys” written in massive letters above a fountain of ink. Plush toys of varying sizes scatter around amongst cutouts and couches. Large airplanes chained to the ceiling above them.

“I don’t remember any of this…” Henry trailed off as he looked around the place.

“Henry that toy looks as big as me when I’m in my other form!” Bendy’s eyes were stars as he stared at the oversized plush toy.

“It sure is-“ Henry was cut off as humming filled the air, striking fear in their hearts. It was certainly a female voice, but Henry couldn’t place who it could possibly be.

“Who- Who was that?”

“I dunno… Hopefully… Hopefully their friendly?”

“…In this place?” Bendy raised an eyebrow at that.

“Boris was- Is. Boris is friendly.” Henry tried to remind himself and the toon that they didn’t know if the wolf was no longer with them.

“I guess so… Let’s keep movin’… It feels like something’s watchin’ us…” Bendy shivered on his line.

“Yeah… Let’s keep moving bud…”

How true Bendy’s remark would turn out to be.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked Ink Dad. Expect more in the future.


End file.
